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Sokratis Papastathopoulos

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tap-in

tap-in

Nothing Wrong With Me
Fillmore said:
No one wants to hear it but he's used to a more technical league in the Bundesliga. He cut his teeth those two years at Genoa alongside Criscito and did well enough to warrant a call up at Milan. That was a bit of a wasted season but any defender worth his salt perfects the game in Italy then moves on to bigger and better things.

The EPL is more physical (no problem) and faster (no problem) than the Bundesliga, but no less intense. In the 2016 DFB-Pokal final, he had Lewandowski, Ribery, and Robben in his back pocket. Pity about that missed penalty, but nobody expects a CB to score from the spot.

If he stays healthy and if the rest of the defense improves under Emery, you'll probably see him stay +1 more year.
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I think its fair to say Sokratis would instantly be our best CB, the fact he will cost less than £20m tells you how bad our current CB's are. Sokratis next to Chambers, Mavro or Soyuncu is a clear step up from Mustafi & Kos, bring in a GK and our defence is transformed.
 
dashsnow17

dashsnow17

Doesn’t Rate Any Of Our Attackers
Trusted ⭐
What are the chances we don't even have any interest in this guy? Could just be people making assumptions because of the Dortmund connection.

If I had to guess, I'd say we'll only sign one CB and it may well be a young one. The links to players like Soyuncu and Diallo are more believable, wouldn't be surprised if one of them came in. I think Emery will look to improve Mustafi, and I think Sven is essentially moving to install the future of the defence. Mavropanos is one piece of the jigsaw, and we'll see the other piece come in this summer.
 
Mo Britain

Mo Britain

Doom Monger
We do seem to be signing or showing an interest in many Dortmund players. I hope this Sven geezer knows about football beyond that, otherwise once the well is exhausted....
 
Toby

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
Mo Britain said:
We do seem to be signing or showing an interest in many Dortmund players. I hope this Sven geezer knows about football beyond that, otherwise once the well is exhausted....
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There's actually only interest in Sokratis right now.

Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan were opportunistic buys with the Mislintat connection being rather random. The former was the best CF available on the market and the latter included in a swap deal with Alexis and bar Martial there wasn't any fitting players at Utd for such a deal. A common Dortmund past doesn't feature here in any way.

With Sokratis this might be the case, but it also might be random. He's a proven quality CB with a 20m release clause. Arsenal should be all over players like this, just like Manolas last years with his 30m clause, in whom the club was reportedly intereste late in the window.

And just on the scope of Mislintat's work:
Kagawa - Osaka
Dembele - Rennes
Aubameyang - St. Etienne
Lewandowski - Posen
Guerreiro - Lorient
Mkhitaryan - Donezk
Pulisic - Pennsylvania
Reus - Gladbach
Sokratis - Bremen
Weigl - 1860 Munich
Hummels - Bayern Munich

His last act would have been getting them Oliver Torres from Porto, but that lead to the famous row with Tuchel. The guy definitely knows his stuff.
 
Toby

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
Mo Britain said:
Still amazing that we had to wait for Sven to join us before realising Aubameyang was one of the finest centre-forwards around.
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It's generally baffling Arsenal waited so long to bring in another class CF.

Lacazette could've been done 2 or 3 years earlier with serious interest. Been a high scoring CF since the 13/14 season.

With Aubameyang I'm not too sure. Dortmund are a very good side who until recently had very good coaches along a strong squad. He was tied down longterm with no release clause and Dortmund were very staunch about keeping him. First time he made real noise about a move away was summer of 16/17, which quickly died down and ended with an apparent gentlemens' agreement he would be allowed to move in the summer of 17/18, that not happening then directly led into Arsenal signing him in January, with the Mislintat connection probably being a lucky chance for the club.
 
DanDare

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
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Player:Saliba
People really over egg the Mislintat thing. We were linked with Sokratis a few summers ago before Sven. Same with Mhiki ( think we tried for him when he went to United) and with Auba
 
Shaun90

Shaun90

Member
He's strong, he's quick and he's decent with the ball. He'll be turning 30 soon, but physically he still looks tip top. He played under Tuchel who emphasised building from the back and Klopp who would have asked his central defenders to push high when pressing so he's comfortable with Emery's “two P's”, possession and pressing. He completes 87 per cent of his passes and averages 2.4 tackles a game, attempting 2.8, so he's a successful tackler of reasonable aggression. Mustafi averages 3.5 tackle attempts as well as 2.1 interceptions which is much higher than Sokratis 1.1. So it would seem he's got a bit of a cooler head on him than the German. He plays on the left side too which isn't coming naturally to any of our current crop, so that's another plus. For £20m, I think its a smart move.
 
JENSON_GUNNER

JENSON_GUNNER

Active Member
Toby Andrl said:
It's generally baffling Arsenal waited so long to bring in another class CF.

Lacazette could've been done 2 or 3 years earlier with serious interest. Been a high scoring CF since the 13/14 season.

With Aubameyang I'm not too sure. Dortmund are a very good side who until recently had very good coaches along a strong squad. He was tied down longterm with no release clause and Dortmund were very staunch about keeping him. First time he made real noise about a move away was summer of 16/17, which quickly died down and ended with an apparent gentlemens' agreement he would be allowed to move in the summer of 17/18, that not happening then directly led into Arsenal signing him in January, with the Mislintat connection probably being a lucky chance for the club.
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I recall us being interested in Auba when he was at St Etienne and was shining in the AFCONs with Gabon.
 
Tir Na Nog

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
Coming round to the idea of this tbh, I'm not sure if he's a top CB but he's definitely in the "best we can get" category and can't be worse than Mustafi. Also has experience.
 
Preacher

Preacher

Always Crying
He can't play together with Mustafi, because of too similar playing styles. So it would probably mean, that Mustafi is a goner.
 
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