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Player flies-in to complete £15m Arsenal move after agreeing terms over 3-year deal

By on June 4, 2018

According to reports in Germany via Sport24, Sokratis Papastathopoulos flew-in to London on Sunday night to finalise his £15m move to Arsenal after agreeing terms over a three-year contract.

Arsenal’s defence leaked 51 league goals last season so it’s obvious new boss Unai Emery needs to tighten up the back four if we’re to secure Champions League football next year.

Per Mertesacker has retired, Laurent Koscielny is out for six months through injury, Shkodran Mustafi has been a disappointing signing while Rob Holding and Calum Chambers have failed to live up to their early promise.

So Emery is expected to overhaul our defence this summer and Papastathopoulos has been touted as a key target in the media with head of recruitment Sven Mislintat leading the charge to bring him to north London.

Mislintat knows the Greek international from their time together at Dortmund and he’s reportedly been in talks with his former club about taking the 29-year-old centre-back to Arsenal this summer.

It looks like a deal is now close to completion as Sports24 are citing a report from Kicker that claims Papastathopoulos arrived in London on Sunday night to finalise a £15m move to the Emirates.

The German publication says the defender has agreed terms over a three-year contract and is due to undergo his medical before being unveiled as Emery’s first signing of the summer.

Papastathopoulos has been a regular at Dortmund for the past five years but is looking for a new challenge after refusing to sign a new contract – which has just one year left to run.

MORE: International star speaks out on reports he’s joining Arsenal

The Greek star is a hugely experienced player and will add some much-needed leadership to the back four while he should also act as a role model for the likes of Holding, Chambers and Mavropanos.

He’s not going to be a ‘marquee’ signing but we have to trust Mislintat and Emery to know what they’re doing and Papastathopoulos should be a solid addition to the squad if we can get this deal over the line.

5 Comments

  1. andy zeroual

    June 4, 2018 at 8:12 pm

    don’t get to exited guys arsenal should compete with the big boys for transfers instead going for free transfers
    kroenke is actually laughing at the fans we need over 200m to compete for top 4 can’t see us finishing top 4 I’m afraid

    • Jay.com

      June 4, 2018 at 9:07 pm

      Arsenal can’t compete with the likes of Man Utd, City,lfc or Chelsea as we run a self sustaining model unlike the aforementioned. Let’s see what Emery would do with what we got & then judge after the season. It’s too early to judge. (my opinion though)

    • Segun Law

      June 4, 2018 at 11:37 pm

      Sokratis isn’t free! In any case, what’s wrong with a freebie, here and there, if we agree Arsenal don’t need too much in terms of additions or tweaks?

  2. JOSHUA 9JA

    June 4, 2018 at 8:58 pm

    Lets wait and see how the coming season will look. Its too early to judge.

  3. Pingback: Arsenal ready to splash over £52m as Emery targets triple swoop | Arsenal Station | Arsenal FC News

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