Arsenal target top young defender as Wenger gets serious
The new Arsenal transfer rumour of the day is Schalke’s Greek centre back Kyriakos Papadopoulos who could be available for as little as £13 Million. He was hailed as the next big thing in Greek football when he was as young as 15 years old.
He began playing for Olympiakos in first team matches as soon as he signed a professional contract with the club and he began to attract interest from many clubs in Europe. He was pursued relentlessly and was invited on countless trials and approached by many clubs.
He eventually sealed a move to Schalke in 2010 and has been a key player for them since. He gets credited with his strength and ability that rarely lets an attacker past him. He has become an important part of the Greek national team as well but has only amassed 16 caps, although he has scored 4 international goals.
It is no surprise that Arsenal have been linked with a move for him as Arsenal have been linked with hundreds of players recently and Papadopoulos has been linked with most clubs in Europe during his short career.
Arsenal fans wouldn’t be too upset though if the club did want him because he is a quality player and he can only grow at the age of 21. His release clause is £19 Million but as said earlier, he may be available for £13 Million which is neither a good nor bad sum to pay for him.
Of all the transfer rumours about Arsenal, surprisingly very few of them have been about defenders. Despite the defence being one of Arsenal’s biggest problems in recent years, for some reason everybody is now happy with it.
What do you think Arsenal fans, would Kyriakos Papadopoulos be a good addition to the squad?
to be honest, once we sorted out our holding midfield the defence looked much better. Our 8 full internationals, are of a decent standard even if none of them are world class. likewise our 2 full international goalkeepers are fairly decent.
szcesney, fabianski
sagna, jenkinson
mertesacker, djourou
koscielny, vermaelen
gibbs, monreal
The most glaring position of weakness for me is right back, where sagna is in his last year and has been off form since his first leg break. jenkinson is also still inexperienced. so I personally think we should be trying to bring in a better right back, than sagna (pizczeck) or at least add a bit more experience than jenkinson (danny simpson). The latter is a good pal of jack Wilshire’s and currently out of contract. sagna would give us cover all across the back 4 and I think 9 defenders is enough. yennaris, coquelin and miquel could give us further cover at full back and centre back if required. The other freebie, I would consider is Mark Schwarzer, who for a season or two would be a good option to take over from mannone, though we could obviously go for a world class keeper and relegate the other 2 keepers accordingly. however, there are not many world class keepers out there. Perhaps Rui Patricio being the only affordable one? others we could consider are begovic or handanovic, after that I don’t think the other world class keepers are available (cech, neuer, casillas, lloris, hart) still de gea & valdes have proved that you don’t needc to be world class to win the title, whilst cech, lloris, hart and casillas have proved that being world class means nothing if you don’t have a top defence in front of you.