It’s evident that Per Mertesacker’s injury is really as bad as we feared with the manager confirming it in a press conference,
“We have bad news on Per Mertesacker. He played in Lens on Friday night, he finished the game and had a little pain on his knee. We found out the next day that it was much more serious than expected. He had surgery yesterday in Germany. It all went well. I know you will ask me for how long he will be out. I don’t know that, it’s months, but I don’t know how long he will be out for.”
Arsenal fans know that when the boss talks this way, we should fear for worst. Take a trip down memory lane in September 2015, when the manager confirmed that Danny Welbeck had gone through a surgery to fix a knee problem. If I can remember clearly, he used the same words ‘I don’t know how long he’d be out for’. We didn’t see that guy Welbz till February 2016 whenhe scored that super header against Leicester.
With Mertesacker reaching the last year of his contract as well as hitting the 30+ mark, things might not pan out too well for the man that is set to be named Arsenal captain. However, Arsenal fans should be happy with Wenger’s quotes of the club looking for experienced center backs in the transfer market to replace the BFG.
Online Sportbooks would be tipping the Gunners to sign a new defender but I’m wondering what odds could surface for that.
Reports surfacing social media is that Arsenal has made an enquiry for Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi. The lad started well in the European Championships but found games hard to come by as the tournament progressed. Mustafi, 24, joined the Mestalla-based outfit two season ago and featured consistently for the club, making 78 appearances in the last two campaigns. In his 12 caps for Germany, he has scored a solitary goal that came against Ukraine in the Euros.
Napoli’s Kalilou Koulibaly has also been mentioned but he’s a defender on high demand with Chelsea also interested in his services. With an imposing height of 6′ 5″, Koulibaly would bring a lot of physicality to the defense and he just off of the back of a brilliant campaign with Napoli.
https://youtu.be/e2b20E7YWTc
Arsenal aren’t exactly short on numbers defensively, with Laurent Koscielny, Gabriel Paulista, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers available for selection. Holding is a very raw talent, so is Chambers, while Gabriel hasn’t really progressed as much as we would have liked. Mertesacker’s injury has made signing a new defender a big priority as signing a forward.
Over to you, Arsene
Sayonara
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