Why Arsenal will NOT complete this defender transfer

Although it is a bit like waiting for a gunfight at High Noon for Arsenal fans and our transfer action at the moment, complete with tumbleweeds, nervous silence and the trickle of sweat down the top lip, there are still some Arsenal transfer rumours doing the rounds.

A few in the football media were reporting last week that Arsene Wenger and the transfer team were keeping a close eye on the Napoli and Algeria international star Faouzi Ghoulam and The Mirror went as far as suggesting that the Gunners had already made an offer of around £10 million for the 24-year old.

I thought at the time that seemed odd, as Ghoulam plays as a left back and that is one of the positions in which we are strongest, with Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal fighting hard over the regular starting role. The theory was, however, that the Napoli defender would be a replacement for Monreal who was possibly set for a return to Spain and La Liga with Atletico Bilbao.

Now though, The Mirror reports that Wenger has no intention at all of selling the Spaniard and he backed that up yesterday by starting Monreal in the first game of pre-season, which would be unlikely if the player was close to a possible transfer away.

The 29-year old has just a year left on his current contract but rather than look to sell, the paper says that the boss wants Monreal to sign an extension to keep him at the club for longer and who can blame him after the Spaniard had a fantastic season and kept Gibbs, who did nothing wrong, out of the team for much of it?

Tags ghoulam Gibbs Monreal

31 Comments

  1. I would rather keep nacho, he’s one if the better left backs around. Selling him would not be a good idea. We don’t need gouhlam, we are fine with nacho

      1. Yes a very nice vid. Even the most hardened and cynical Arsenal fan must feel just a little bit of that “cohesion” AW speaks about when you watch this. Love the way all the guys so obviously adore little Santi – to watch him in that pool and then think back to all the media rumours of him leaving a few weeks/months back you realise what a load of b****t the media churns out – that is not the face/demeanour of someone on their way out the door anytime soon.

    1. Giving contract extensions to 30-somethings is not the solution. Selling is the way to go.
      #SellNacho #WarChest

      1. Business proposal: After they hit 30+, their market value decreases drastically. Sell them in their prime! #SellAlexis #SellÖzil #SellWalcott #SellRamsey

  2. The transfer makes no sense at all. Its annoying to keep seeing the report when we all just watched Nacho play hours ago. He’s not going anywhere.

  3. What we need is a DM….I read that we are linked with Motta….lol….how about that for a crappy transfer talk…we already have a 33 year old cover we don’t need another one…this is like the worst transfer window ever. Nothing is happening, we are not even being linked to anyone.

  4. Vidal off to Bayern for 40 million euro, not bad at all!!!why didn’t we sign him? Vidal would offer so much to our midfield, another possible target moving to another team. I wonder if cech was our one and only signing of the season

    1. The way I see it, if I must be frank, for Vidal to come in, Arteta and Flamini must leave first. Also, hope u do know Vidal IS NOT A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER, so that will leave Ramsey, Wilshere and Ox (mainly these guys) sweating badly.

      1. Vidal can play as a DM too, he played in that position with juventus a number of times. I know your thinking he would go forward looking for goals and leave the midfield empty, but that’s not the case. He us a professional and can play a numerous positions across the midfield

        1. He can – I think he played a lot at right back at Leverkusen and at DM but because he started scoring quite regularly he’s moved further forward. He’s fairly similar to Emerson (the Brazilian who also played for Juventus and Leverkusen) as he was really a defensive mid but often played further forward in his career because he was also a gifted (and similarly destructive) attacker.

          1. no he played a b2b at leverkusen. He probably played 1 game as a DM and you guys keep claiming he played DM smh

    2. No offense man but honestly why in the holy hell would Arsenal sign Vidal when midfield is already overcrowded with talented players?

      If Le Prof decided to sell Jack, Ozil or Santi than yes Vidal would be an incredible addition, but he isn’t as good as Le Coq in the DM role and Wenger would never bench Ramsey regardless of form for the Chileans inclusion. A Benzema or Lacazette for similar money is a much better piece if transfer business IMHO

      1. Because a quality player who can play with Coquelin or take his place as and when it’s needed would massively improve our squad. What do we do now if Coquelin get’s injured for a run of games? Drop points basically. And Coq is a fantastic DM but to say Vidal simply isn’t as good isn’t necessarily correct. He hasn’t played there recently but he’s played there often in his career (I think that’s actually the position he made his name playing prior to the Juve move) and more importantly, to say he wouldn’t or couldn’t be a better alternative to flamini and the injury prone and defensively limited Arteta would be crazy imo.

        1. Any of these players will be and could have been an improvement on what we got:
          Otamendi, Morgan,kondogbia,Vidal,rues,aubameyang, benzema
          But it seems we won’t be getting any of these players. Wenger said any players that would improve the team, all these players would and could have improved us tremendously. Wenger is making a fool out of all of us

        2. To put Vidal in the same sentence with Arteta and Flamini as a player is extraordinarily unkind to the Chilean. Lol. My point is that Vidal is a better box 2 box midfielder than Ramsey, Jack and Santi and wouldnt necessarily improve Arsenal by displacing Coquelin as DM. Le Prof wouldn’t consider benching Santi or Ramsey(nor should he) to place AV in his best position and honesty why would Vidal choose to “compete” with Le Coq when the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern will play him in a more B2B role.

          Minus the Sanchez factor, why would AV seriously consider Arsenal over Bayern and Madrid?

      2. I’m hearing we are about to make a massive bid for benzema. If we can’t get benzema the best next thing would be lacazete. I’m also reading wenger wants aubameyang. Any of these 3 players would be a huge boost for us. I wish we can get one of them. The best choice would be benzema but lacazete and aubameyang could also be huge signings

  5. This transfer rumour is as good as dead !!!
    as far as midfield is concerned, when arteta was given contract extension i knew there wont be any signing in midfield as wenger will try out coq for full season and allow him to develop with arteta and flamini as cover
    we have arteta flamini coq ramsey wilshere ox and santi that is 7 players for 2 positions and one more signing will make first team football difficult for the likes of wilshere and santi who always start when fit
    also sanogo campbell poldi and gnabry all set to leave we will sign one forward that is for sure !!!!

  6. I didn’t think Nacho would leave anyway. He’s only just established himself and was playing with a smile on his face once he returned to left back. It was only the ever inaccurate reports of known rumour-mongering “newspapers” that suggested he was going.

    If he does go during this window, I’ll be very surprised…and will have to eat the above words 🙁

    1. Nacho ain’t going nowhere. There is no need for him to leave, hope we can extend his contract by another 2 years at least. Nacho has proved himself last season and he has much more to offer this coming season

  7. Every worthless article is a place to talk about our need for a DM and striker.its hella funny, we fans deserve these two signings. Manure introduced 2 top class signings and one quality at once, Morgan,Scwheni and Damian…while we have to be settling with just one signing all summer. And don’t give me the we still have time left crap, time is running out

  8. I just have one question, I hope I get an answer from somebody. Are we going to sign anyone?? If yes which position you think it would be?

    1. Thank you for the dumb thumb downs,it was just a question. I fkinn take it back. Hope we sign somebody

      1. Manager is only trying to fool everyone, the fans and the media. Why can’t we learn from manure. They finished one place below us and look at how they are buying class players.its cuz they want to challenge for titles. We on the other hand are relaxed and keep saying our squad is good enough. Crazy

  9. Nacho had his best season of his career last year, and as Wenger has said, we no longer need to sell our best players.

    Plus he scored against untied so we all love him…

    1. United will be a huge force this season. With the additions they have made they look like a major title contender. I envy the manure fans for having such an exciting transfer window and they are not finished yet. Wow

  10. monreal is a good and improved defender but with some big faults backs off too easily and lacks real strength in tackle and hes too lateral for my taste…its not a priority for me but this guy is an upgrade for sure if it happens

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