Arsene Wenger says he hasn’t just bought Calum Chambers for the future, and suggested that his long-term future at the club lies in the much-fabled, much sought-after, defensive midfield position.
Although he may be tasked with filling in at centre-half in the early weeks of the season, the Arsenal manager told the press today that he envisages the former Southampton man playing in midfield.
“He can play a major role because, in what I observe, he has the qualities to impose himself in this part of the team,” he said. “I believe he can play in defensive midfield and that’s where I see him.”
Responding to suggestions that his £16m purchase was something of a risk due to his inexperience, Arsene replied, “He’s 19 years of age, he’s a young promising talent and when you’re a manager you believe in the players when you buy them.
“We spent a lot of money for him, that’s true but in the longer term it is well spent – that is the most important thing.
“When a player is bought for a longer period you can never say it’s expensive. At the moment it’s expensive yes but I don’t regret it.”
It does look as if this season is going to be one in which Chambers plays a number of positions, but in the long-term it’s clear the manager has plans for him and that augurs well for his development.
Interesting, so not in for Carvalho perhaps?
Nah I still think we’re in for him, Wenger often does this big up players you already have so you can lower the prices of players you want to buy. While I do rate Chambers playing right back for Southampton to playing defense midfield for Arsenal is a massive step. He’ll probably just play at cb or rb in cup games.
What Wenger says to the media can be taken with a pinch of salt.
I still have a sneaky feeling that we’re gonna sign Khedira in the last few days of the transfer window…
Why would we pay £300,000 a week before tax for an injury prone player that we already have ample cover in?; with Ramsey being a more rounded version of this guy.
Hope we are still in for Carvalho!
Currently covering 3 positions then? RB, CB and DM?
Accident waiting to happen with Per already out.
I guess you could argue that Flamini covers DM as well, and Bellerin covers RB.
Still looking a bit stretched if you ask me.
Carvalho + Vermaelen replacement + Reus please 🙂
From what I’ve seen, Bellerin can very soon give Debuchy a run for his money on RB, so we’re more than well covered there.
We still need a really strong number 1 defensive midfielder to challenge for the title, I should assume Wenger can see that just as well as us.
Think Bellerin is more competition for Debuchy than Monreal is for Gibbs – and I’m not bashing Nacho, I think he’s a good backup personally. More excitingly for an England fan, if Chambers does end up in that role and does it well, the national side will gain something it hasn’t had for years – a proper holding midfielder. Carrick was never really that, Hargreaves when fit was more a playmaker. Can’t think of anyone other than Gareth Barry who has played that role in recent years. So with Wilshere, the Ox and Chambers developing in Arsenal’s midfield, I wonder… Read more »
Reus unlikely to move this summer after his injury, and given that Dortmund haven’t let two big name players leave in one offseason before.
I think Wenger really needs a technically gifted passer of the ball in this position. Callum showed he has the raw skills on the ball to play in midfield. I won’t lie, I was hoping he would get an established DM to fill in the position but it’ doesn’t look likely now.
Arteta is a technically gifted passer of the ball, and he plays in that position.
We need a defensively solid DMF more than someone who can pick a pass, we’ve got enough of those and they will play beside the DMF and in front of him.
Right. The problem is that Arteta gets overrun in the big games. A stronger and quicker presence is a must. As it stands, Arsenal haven’t done a jot to address the shellackings against Chavs, Everton, and Pool.
I think he would be DM in long term but not necessarily short term. So, Carvalho deal can still be on.
Interesting thought. Carvalho is young too, so that’d create some nice competition for the DM spot over the coming years.
I don’t think Carvalho is happening. Chambers and Miquel will be the backup centre half pairing, barring the last-minute signing of a geriatric. Flamini and Arteta will play the holding roles, and Jack will be played there occasionally if he can’t get games as an attacker. That said, the holding midfielder is probably the hardest position to fill, so I can see why they’re dithering. And it’s very hard to sign a backup centre-half who’s either not too green or over the hill.
Nothing has happened in the last 3 seasons with Miquel to suggest to me that Wenger feels comfortable giving him a squad place (he’s no longer under 21) and a potential run in the squad if Koscielny goes down.
I think when Vermaelen goes we’ll bring in someone new.
Breaking my heart Wenger! Nothing against chambers but you still have time to prove me wrong
Maybe we’re missing the point here. I know there’s a lot going for getting in a marquee signing anywhere, but especially as a defensive midfielder. But if it were to be a Carvalho or Khedira they’d be way behind our fitness requirements, the pace of the Premier League and the Premier League itself. There’s no way Wenger’s going to jettison Arteta early this season because it would be insanity to do so. Which means that anyone coming in (in his position) wouldn’t be playing until the Champions’ League group stage games start. The thing is we already have a strong… Read more »
Wenger didnt even tip toe around it. He said he will play dm. Guess we wont be buyin a dm now. Need at least 1 cb if tv5 goes, i can see pulling an ozil-esque signing before end of the window aswell. Could we see Marco Reus maybe? Wenger does work in mysterious ways.
we have already had the Ozil signing in Sanchez.
Think Wenger will stay with Arteta/Flamini for this season, with Chambers deputising RB and CB and starting DM in the Wankatron1000 Cup or even a dead rubber CL game, with the odd sub appearance. That way he does cover our defence yet still gets sufficient game time in DM (where Wenger obviously sees him being played long term).
The Carvalho saga is brought to you by the same pack of liars who brought you the Khedira saga. Bet we were never in for him and we’re looking exclusively for a CB to replace TV.
This would in no way surprise me.
I would love Carvalho, think he’ll be tremendous but at no stage has it seemed like Arsenal are genuinely in for him. Think he’d like to come, has the “as a boy I was a fan of Arsenal [and Thierry Henry]” and Sporting need the money/would like to cash in.
But it just doesn’t seem like Arsenal have the same level of interest.
Either that or it’s very Arsenal – lethargic in public, frantic in private. Bit like Jabba the Hut (not Fat Sam..ew)
You don’t see many 19yo who are calm on the ball and have good decision-making, especially at the back.
I can’t wait to see how he fares against City but I’m really impressed so far.
Couldn’t agree more, after seeing his two pre-season games, all my doubts about him somehow just went down the drain. He is cool headed & strong as well. For such a young player, the potential is there, it’s so obvious to see.
I know it’s early, but I have faith in this guy.
Starting to believe chambers wasn’t intended as debuchy’s backup. If TV5 goes, we get another CB in. He’s most likely going to play as a third or fourth CB and in def midfield all season. With the backup role going to bellerin, who has been very impressive so far in preseason.
There was never any chance Wenger would have spent £16m on Chambers just to have him as a back-up. Maybe we have money now but we’re not Man City.
Bye bye Khadera, Carvalho and Schniderlin. Or maybe I should say, buy buy?
No. You should say bye buy!
I still instantly think of Chamberlain whenever I read Chambers in a headline.
What? Have I got anything of use to contribute? Nahhhh.
I had same thoughts when i clicked the link. I was like…. “why would Wenger make my attacking Beauty a DM?” Wenger knows best though
Chambers is only 19. I think ‘the boss’ is talking long term future as DM. Too young for that spot at the moment, probably needs a couple of years to really beef up and gain the physical presence required to own that position. Still have a feeling we are going to pull out a little surprise before the end of August.
I am looking forward to him pairing with the ox. Chambo-Chambo
Chambo Combo
Tom bo li de se de moi ya, yeah Chambo Chambo!!!
Dunno why everyones so obsessed with this DM purchase. Flamini was outstanding last season and the bite and passion he brought back last season was a major factor in why we lead the league for most of the season. Even when we were 2-3 goals up flamini was still barking orders.
I’d more concentrate on the new centre half purchase, chambers should be fine but i can’t see him covering for mertersacker by himself for the start of the season. Not with our fixture list and possible opponents in Europe.
That is true
I’m sorry, but I would not classify Flamini as, “outstanding” last season. I enjoy Flamini’s ‘passion’ as much as the next guy, but I do feel he is the player we as fans overrate the most out of everyone, while somewhat ironically, we underrate his rival for the squad, Arteta. Flamini is a good squad player but to say his passion and bite is a major factor is why we led the league for so long is poppycock. We led the league for so long because our defence was like Fort Knox for a long time and because we had… Read more »
While I enjoyed your use of the word poppycock very much, I do think his energy, bite and passion helps a lot. I think determination like that is infectious and his talking on the pitch and organisation, making sure the boys are on their toes can only help the team. It’s good leadership from a senior member I feel
flamini wasnt outstanding, maybe at the start of the season he was giving us this “bite” in midfield 😉 , but in the second part of the season he as liability collecting yellow after yeallow specially when we were loosing player after player the last thing you want is your player get suspended for some very stupid fault
Just look at the embarrassing hammerings last season. Arsenal have done nothing to rectify this. So excited about Sanchez but Wenger needs to sign a better holding midfielder and send Flamini or Arteta out — my vote would be for Flamini to be dropped. I mean, he’d miss a number of games through suspension anyway.
Replacing Flamini by Carvalho would not suddenly mean the hammerings had been addressed. Conceding so many goals in so few games isn’t down to one player/position, it’s down to a collective failure. And anyone who thinks addressing that problem won’t have been at the top of Wenger’s priority list this summer is crazy – we are talking about a very smart and experienced manager here after all. I’m not saying getting a quality defensive midfielder in wouldn’t be nice, but it wouldn’t solve the big game collapse problem on its own, and if it doesn’t happen that doesn’t mean we… Read more »
Exactly. Would also be interested to know how many people calling for us to sign Carvalho have ever actually seen him play, youtube clips notwithstanding..
flamini was great last season. its clear to me that those who disagree didnt actually pay too much attention. re-watch games, see for yourself. if you’ve never watched a game on mute or re-watched a game then you have no right to comment on players with any real conviction.
Agree with you here mate.
Give me Flamini over Gerarard/carrick/paulino/fernandinho any day.
Im not saying we don’t need another one, Arteta is not upto speed anymore. Im just saying that Central Defense should be our main priority rather than CM.
Lmfao
Urgh Wenger. Why not buy players who can cover in every position? We need a true DM. And IMO a seasoned striker for when Giroud has his off days (Sanchez is a WF), and a CB when Verm goes. Reus wtf surely bull he’s amazing but we’re stocked.
sorry mate, but Sanchez is our alternative to Giroud as lone striker now, and in my opinion a very good one at that.
“Why not buy players who can cover in every position” Are there any players that cover every position as you require? I remember playing Football Manager and seeing D/SC, which were always weird and they we’re very good at either position but players that cover GK/RB/CB/LB/DM/M/AM/LM/RM/SC/SL/SR…. do they even exist?
Well, we used to have just the guy to cover for anyone and everyone, but we’ve only gone and let Bendtner leave.
Eboue
pool nearly won the league without a “proper” DM and they beat some of the big boy too without it, what we were missing last season is pace and energy in midfield something ramsey/theo/ox give us but were injured a big part of the season . campbell and sanchez will add to that
Wenger following the example of Bayern with Phillip Lahm in turning a full back into a DM. Just a little younger when the transition is made.
so room for Jenks after all
We hoped Arsenal will not be subjected to conceding six goals in front of the Top four teams. We thought a strong mobile quick defensive midfielder in addition to a goal scoring machine striker. Wenger signed non of the two . We really do not understand his way of thinking . Chamber is too young and inexperience to play this role.
That’s what people said about Cesc. If they’re good enough they play. If they have a naturally good understanding of where to be, what to do and the technical skills to pull it off then why not play them. Chambers is very useful on the ball, his passing range is sound and he has a mature head on his shoulders.
What I want and have been hoping for all summer is one more centre back.
Agreed. We have added to the striking force, we have replaced the former France right back with the current one. We have improved on our backup? goalkeeper and in Chambers we have acquired someone with superb timing in his tackling and accuracy in his distribution. He has too much quality to be regarded as one for the future he will cover at CB until Per returns and then move forward into a defensive midfield role. In terms of “must haves”, we need an upgrade on Vermaelen and anyone else is a bonus. It was not the lack of a defensive… Read more »
Just can’t understand why Wenger never tryed TV5 in DCM position. I believe he woudl have fitted that possition very well. He allways was a bit of liability in CD as he lacks concentration and runs forward like headless chicken (bit like PSG’s 50 mil. deffender :)), but David Luiz was utilized in DCM by “chosen one” quite succesfully. We might have kept terminator happy, signed extension and got that 50 mil. from PSG…
crazy comment bakri
Apparently Alexis passed you by.
We should get bender
I don’t think robots are allowed.
Bite my shiny metal ass!!
either he doesn’t want to come or they don’t want to sell at an ‘affordable’ price. the money is there, but wenger insists starting the season stretched at the back. and this without any injuries there.
Guess it also serves as a vote of confidence from Wenger for Bellerin to be Second choice RB. Could very well be part of the Champions League squad. Also means that Wenger is going to have to bring in at least one top CB, if we assume that Chambers will be 4th choice CB.
i don’t think bellerin is necessarily 2nd choice rb. when per is back, chambers may be 2nd choice rb, 3rd/4th choice cb, and 2nd choice dm all at the same time. thats how i see him for the season at least.
bellerin may see a lot of games, but i don’t see him filling in for debuchy in any big games while chambers is on the bench
He can take over songs role as dm and cb cover!
Hopefully more Gilberto than Song
I’m wondering if this means we’ll just buy one centre back before the end of the transfer window, just to replace Vermaelen. Chambers would be an able replacement for three positions, which is good, but it also means his fitness would be of huge importance to us.
Like others I believe this is a long-term plan and he’ll look for him to learn from Arteta and Flamini throughout the duration of this season. Of course I hope he doesn’t learn Flamini’s tackling because then we’d have some problems on our hands. Chambers, like I did when I was a young man, needs to learn from the best. In my first job I was given a mentor who was to guide me through the early weeks and get me up to speed as quickly as possible. The problem was that the bosses had no idea that the man… Read more »
You’ve lived quite the illustrious life, haven’t you Pete?
Doesnt really sound like pete, sounds a bit forced and heavy….I may be wrong. So you’d get a thumbs up for pete’s sake.
I agree. Everyone has off days even ramblers
and again..we were so close to become champion only for wenger to ruin it by not going in all the way by getting a ready to b world class today DM. this is like kissing a girl who want to hv sex with u but then u didnt hv sex with her for some reason
If she wanted to have sex with you then why didn’t you? Were you having trouble down there?
exactly…u hv to ask wenger that
Hi, please see the comment policy. No text speak allowed, thanks.
http://news.arseblog.com/comment-policy/
What are you blathering on about? It’s nothing like that. We fell short last season due to injuries and not scoring enough goals at times. The extra goals have hopefully been taken care of with Sanchez and now we have a new fitness coach to hopefully help with the fitness and injuries. Depth is no longer in question as we have more than enough players (too many right now for all the spaces if we keep buying), so it’s going to be one in, one out and unless we get rid of one of our DM’s in Arteta and Flamini… Read more »
Damn, I forgot to add in Rosicky, Diaby, Coquelin and Zelalem. Quite the midfield and forward positions for covering the league and cups
See today’s blog. We can put out two full XIs that would finish in the top four, without even using Podolski, Diaby, Rosicky, or Gnabry. Depth is not an issue.
Arsene is now waiting for the Real Madrid end of transfer window sale to start. I think Khedira is a real possibility.
There has been no creditable link to William Carvalho and despite what Wenger says in this article i don’t believe he will trust such a young player in such a disciplined and vital role, especially given the way we commit players when on the attack.
In my humble opinion it is shortsighted, if not sheer lunacy, to buy a Right Back with experience in the EPL and then planning for him to cover THREE different positions in a team who aspires to win the EPL. If our aspirations of winning the EPL are truthful and sincere then we most definitely urgently need a specialist, top class Defensive Midfielder, a proven top class Central Defender, (not Agger or Nastasich), a top class Left Back and a proven, goal scoring Striker. Wenger has been having fanciful illusions for too many years now of winning the EPL with… Read more »
Doesn’t sound very humble…
*Nastasic or, if you so prefer, Mr. Nasty
Is it possible that he did not buy him as a right back? Rather like when he bought Henry to be a goalscorer when TH did not consider himself to be a goalscorer?
Are you Fatgooner in disguise? Honestly, we’ve strengthened an already pretty strong squad in almost every area of the pitch, and you still look for something to whine about? Are you only happy when you have something to be unhappy about? The experienced, top-notch RB that we bought was Debuchy, who is the man who relegated Sagna to second choice in the France team. Chambers was bought as a squad player for today, but he’s only 19 and yet has experience at all three of RB, CB, and DM. Once Wenger has figured out where he will serve the team… Read more »
whats with the African dudes always getting upset… its 100% one way or 100% the other…
grey is a colour..
Signing a new cb is essential should verm leave, but it won’t necessarily improve our starting eleven. The appeal of signing a readymade physical DM lies in the fact that it would help plug the deficiencies of last season, and be an improvement on our first team, rather than just replacing a squad player.
Quick question; Is Johan still here or is he available?
Off to Hamburg, they’re just ironing out the details now.
Wenger plays up the possibility of an exciting young player and people are still complaining despite the rather amazing summer we’ve had so far? Jeez guys…
Why not chambers?he is very calm and strong on the ball and thats his best position.
Djourou to Hamburg is finally official. Good luck to him. He’s not as bad as he was made out to be in his last season for us. He just played out of position.
Quick question, where is Gnabry?
Makes sense. Considering we still have Arteta and Flam playing in that role; buying a proper DM right now would definitely upset one of them unless Wenger wasdeciding to offload one. But if that were the case it wouldnt be fair to either of them since Arteta is incredibly important and Flamini having just arrived here from last year still is capable of doing a fine job. At least this way we can give Flam and Arteta game time while slowly easing Chambers into that role. Good man management Wenger.
When I’ve had the chance to see Callum play, as much as I can see him as a defensive player, his movements and ability on the ball is exquisite and seems a little small for CB anyway. With a senior player like Arteta around, it seems that his speed and ability to distribute could be molded to an Arteta style, but with the potential to be stronger and better defensively. I understand Arteta is playing out of position at DM, but if he lends his vision and the respect he demands in the locker room, I can see Callum one… Read more »
I don’t buy into this DM hype. We collapsed last season because of injuries and not enough depth and played with one striker: giroud week in week out the guy was dead by march when it was money time! I think he should play arteta and flamini and not put a competition between the two. cause they have the discipline and experience to protect the defense. and it will give freedom to the dribblers and not ask players like ozil or cazorla or walcott to track back all game cause it’s definitely not their games .and they are just terrible… Read more »
Sceszny
Gibs Per ,Kos Debuchy
Flamini/ Chambers.
Ramsey Ox/ carzola
Ozil/Wilshere
Sanchez
Giroud/Walcott then back up Gabi,Arteta,Campell,Pold & Sanongo
I’d go for…
Scz
Bellenderin NewCB Kos Gibbs
Ramsey NewDM
Theo. Ozil. Sanchez
Me
As mentioned.
DM is not a priority. Cback is.
With chambers already signed, we have Arteta, Flamini and possibly Diaby + Chambers.
Unless it is Khedira, it is highly unlikely we will need to replace Arteta this far into pre-season particularly as he has familiarity with the Meterscielny axis. It would be foolish.
Chambers will cover RB and Cb but has the energy levels to eventually succeed in central midfield 9say next to the equally energetic Ramsey) He will be gradually involved in midfield this coming season.
Carvalho is in the bag
The boss obviously see’s something in him. I think that in time he will justify his price tag, think Walcott and Chamberlain.
Arsene knows.