In what amounts to something of a surprise, Arsenal have moved ahead with a transfer offer to bring Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos to The Emirates. The Express reports that the club have made a £10.9 million bid for the Greek centre back as they look to solve their defensive problem.
Arsenal need to bring in a centre back before the transfer window closes on Monday. The sale of Thomas Vermaelen to Barcelona earlier in the month has left Arsene Wenger short of options in central defence.
While new signing Calum Chambers has impressed covering the position, The Gunners would still prefer to have an established player as backup to Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker.
The North London club have been linked with a number of centre halves during the summer. Most notably, Wenger was reported to be showing interest in Mehdi Benatia and Kostas Manolas. However, those deals are now out of the questions with Benatia joining Bayern Munich and Manolas signing for Italian side Roma.
This leaves the long-serving manager having to look at other options in a market that is short of availably quality centre backs. This explains the interest in Papastathopoulos who would offer Arsenal excellent cover in defence.
The 26-year-old is not first choice at Dortmund but performed admirably last season when injuries prevented first choice centre backs starting for the German side, making a total of 28 league appearances.
With limited opportunities at Dortmund on the horizon the Greek defender may be willing to move to The Premier League in order to challenge the Arsenal centre backs for the first team.
The transfer is far from being complete though with Dortmund demanding closer to £20 million for the player. This is significantly more than Arsenal have offered but negotiations look set to continue with several days of the transfer window remaining.
gooner4life
Aug 28, 2014 at 7:41 pm
All summer we were looking at the probability that TV was going to leave yet here we are the window about to close and we are seriously short of cover in three key areas,centre-back, defensive mid-field and up front now that OG is out injured. Then when Arsene says “he wont buy a quality striker “because he feels we have enough strikers, but the problem is they are not just good enough for us to win the PL. Lack of experienced backup in crucial areas cost us the title last year and it looks like it will do the same again this season.Please Mr Wenger open your eyes and your chequebook quickly.Don’t make the same mistake this season.
GunnerNZ
Aug 29, 2014 at 4:13 am
Mate you hit the nail square on the h in the head. Nothing has changed yet again so far this season. I agree with you 100 %, the way I see things is that every past player In the premier league is saying the same thing that you are saying. However Wenger see’s it entirely different, I believe he is the problem and needs to move on. He doesn’t have what it takes anymore.
Rebo ehwan
Aug 28, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Just when will Wenger learn his lesson?
Ramhir Bertram
Aug 29, 2014 at 7:06 pm
I think you are absolutely right, 100% but i like to believe in Wenger, if he says we don’t need a striker as much as i would like to differ i will accept it. also we need to look at if we buy a striker now what will happen to the future of walcott, campbell sanogo etc.
Eric Williams
Aug 30, 2014 at 12:08 am
I think is time arsenal get rid of wenger and look for a better manager.
Eric Williams
Aug 30, 2014 at 12:15 am
I think arsenal should get rid of wenger and look for a smarter manager who buy good players to compete for trophies .wenger is a joker who doesn’t want to take arsenal to that extend.his target is to keep arsenal in the forth position