We all know that the vast majority of tabloid gossip is pure clickbait and that 99% of it will never happen but every now and then you hope against hope that it is true and that is certainly the case with the latest Arsenal gossip, courtesy of the Mirror.
The notorious English tabloid is running the headline “Arsenal receive Shkodran Mustafi ‘transfer enquiry’ from Monaco”
They claim that it is based on reports from France but do not actually mention from which outlet, though in the next sentence they mention L’Equipe, but only in the context of Mustafi’s £27 Million valuation. It is actually unclear if the report of Monaco’s enquiry is from them.
But regardless, if this is in any way true it would be music to the ears of most Arsenal fans.
No disrespect to Mustafi but he is a liability and is not up to the standard that is required at the Emirates. He may be a success elsewhere, he is a world cup winner after all, but it has simply not worked out for him at Arsenal.
The biggest problem for Arsenal is that despite how poor Mustafi is they are starting to run out of fit central defenders and the club may well be reluctant to sell him without a replacement being secured.
But it would leave a lot of fans shaking their heads if this rumour turns out to be true and the club never took the opportunity to offload the German when the chance came.
It also beggars belief that the club cannot source a central defender, there are enough available if the will is there and £27 Million is enough, I mean, it cannot be that difficult to sign an upgrade on Mustafi. The bar is fairly low.