Having sold Thomas Vermaelen to Barcelona few days back, Arsenal are in search of a quality central defender.
However, the captain’s replacement will arguably be used as a cover for leading central defense partners Mertesacker and Koscielny.
Wenger himself claimed that he hopes to lure a center back this summer. He stated:
“If I can find another center back I will do it”
It seems that Arsenal boss has perhaps found the center half and as per reports, the North Londoners are closing in to secure $13m Kostas Manolas signings.
The 23 year old Greek international plays for Olympiacos and was also featured in his nation’s every game of the World Cup 2014.
The 1.89m tall central defender is strong and not only adds to defense but also score goals as well.
Last season, Manolas featured in 25 league games for Olympiacos and netted 3 goals. Other than that, he also made 7 Champions League appearances and scored 2 goals that came against Benfica and French giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Overall, Konstantinos Manolas seems a decent prospect for the future and the mentioned fee is not very high as well.
Meanwhile, the season is about to begin in a few days and Callum Chambers is expected to start as the central defender alongside Koscieleny in the first game against Crystal Palace as Mertesacker just arrived from extended break.
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We are so close yet so far away!
The premier league is merciless and those who fantasise that Arteta/Flamini/Wilshire will be strong enough to deal with stronger players the whole season, are deluded. What is the problem buying the last two pieces of the jigsaw, unless Wenger has “I cannot buy the players that the fans and pundits want” syndrome? This time the fans and pundits know better than Wenger. If he does not get a DM and CB wait till next MAY as Wenger hangs his head. May be a Greek tragedy in the making. Having said all this maybe Wenger will buy William Carvalho or Sami Khedira and prove us wrong. What is Wenger trying to prove?
Unless we have a strong hard tackling defensive midfielder, possibly a black hugely built one, we are only joking then. Arteta is soft, slow and gives away the ball to opposition so easily. Flamini is a no nonsense person though but how far can he go?, we need a real commander in the engine room to really contend else we may score the more and concede even more. Hope we aint using the community shield game to judge a full season EPL,Capital one cup, FA cup and UCL. Wenger complete the niceties you started by filling the blank spaces completely.
You guys are funny. This is not wrestling. A 5 foot tall 100 pound defender can be perfect – as long as he is not dealing with balls in the air, of course. The main skill of a defender is to tap the ball away with his foot, requiring speed and coordination, not size. “Hard tackling” defenders give up a constant stream of penalties and free kicks.