According to ESPN, Arsenal have lined up Southampton defender Jose Fonte as an alternative to Shkodran Mustafi should they fail to sign the German international from Valencia.
Fonte is the third centre-back to be linked with the Gunners in the last 24 hours. Yesterday evening the BBC claimed Bayer Leverkusen’s Omer Toprak and Fenerbahce’s Simon Kjaer are also on Arsene Wenger’s radar.
Fonte was on the bench for Saints’ opening game of the season – the 1-1 draw at St Mary’s with Watford – after excelling at the back for Portugal as they won Euro 2016 in France.
The 32-year-old has played in England since 2007 when he joined Crystal Palace on loan from Benfica. He signed permanently at Selhurst Park the following year and spent two years with the Eagles before moving to Southampton, then in League One, in 2010. The Portuguese has been a regular ever since, helping the Saints reestablish themselves as Premier League stalwarts.
According to ESPN, Fonte is also wanted by Jose Mourinho at Manchester United who are likely to have the advantage given Jorge Mendes’ is the player’s agent.
Aside from us being desperate for literally any defender, we’re not sure there’s much to this. That said, he could be useful if we continue with our ‘you can only score for Arsenal if you’ve played for Southampton’ policy.
Mustafi should be the priority.
Club should have done a better job in order to not be held over the barrel of the transfer market gun. But they didn’t, so it’s high time we paid up.
In a world where Bolasie goes for £30m, the AFC board and manager need to really catch up with the times. A similar price for Mustafi is not outrageous.
People need to realise that we’ve been sold a dream…. I’m very confident that the club hasn’t made anywhere near £200mil or even £150mil available to the manager for transfers. BBC’s Ornstein even mentioned yesterday that “price is the issue”. So that can only mean two things….1. we’re trying to sign Lewandowsi or similar… or 2. we have a lot less available for transfers than we are led to believe.
And we all know which is more likely.
Haha its def not 1. Those players go to clubs that want to win things
Jose Fonte? Oh no, he’s going to do a Kalstromesque signing….
I check this page (and every other gossip site) every ten minutes. No striker, no defender. It’s driving me sane. ???
Sounds like a great service that Arsenal are providing, then. Maybe the NHS could prescribe being an Arsenal fan to all the insane people out there?
But i don’t want to lose the voices
Story may be bullshit, but I’d definitely welcome signing Fonte. PL experience, Euros winner, very solid defender.
However, WHY HAVE WE JUST NOT BOUGHT MUSTAFI ALREADY?!
Because of there is a distinct disjoint between our policies and ambitions. RVP’s open letter rings quite true today: “As announced earlier this year I had a meeting with the Boss and Mr. Gazidis after the season. This was a meeting about the club’s future strategy and their policy. Financial terms or a contract have not been discussed, since that is not my priority at all. “I personally have had a great season but my goal has been to win trophies with the team and to bring the club back to its glory days. “Out of my huge respect for… Read more »
Sorry but anything RVP said was BS. ”Financial terms is not my prority”, my poop! I am as mad as the average Arsenal fan but let’s not say RVP was right.
What he said has come to pass, so really it’s just fact unfortunately
Not saying he was wrong, but what did he say that has ‘come to pass’?
Nothing in that statement predicted anything, so I don’t see how you can make that statement.
He was saying that after the meeting in which the clubs future strategy and policy was discussed, he came to the conclusion that it would not be sufficient to bring the club back to its glory days.
As we can all see, the club’s future strategy and policy in the subsequent years has hindered us in our ability to compete for the title. Therefore, it has come to pass.
I don’t know why we would go for an aging defender when the main issue with our current defenders are their age! Virgil van Dijk is who we should be going for if not Mustafi. Excellent dominant defender to play with Koscielny, should have got him from Celtic instead of Gabriel the headless chicken.
He’s a good player, would be a natural foil to Koscielny and a mature head with experience at all levels of English football. Age would be my concern but that’s probably not a consideration given the state we’re in.
Really? We’re going to buy a 32 year old as the potential replacement for a 32 year old? Please.
Jeorge Mendes is involved, so this is a very runny poo methinks.
“We are the Arsenal, Arsenal plc.”
After Gabriel’s injury we had a week to sign a CB, register him, get him a few training sessions with the team so that he is ready for the Liverpool game and we didn’t do it.
It’s 16th today, only 4 days left for Leicester clash so it’s not happening before that.
They say they are working hard and for a second if we believe they are not lying like they always do and they are actually trying hard then maybe they are incompetent.
I don’t know which is worse.
Quite frankly if we’re going to buy shit players just because they have experience I’d rather see Holding and Chambers play who actually have a chance of being proper Arsenal quality defenders one day.
Moan that we’re left with Holding and Chambers at CB.
Moan that we’re (rumoured) to be buying ‘shit’ PL proven CB to cover them.
No wonder us Arsenal fans get such a bad rep.
We need a Sol Campbell kind of signing. Not Stepanovs, not Cygan, not even Gallas. If we don’t buy what we need all I’m saying is I’d rather see a youngster come through. Stones was apparently available this season. Cahill was also available before Chelsea got him. And that is just in defence.
I love seeing the younger players given the chance, I hope they do come through also.
But they won”t survive a whole season by themselves unfortunately. Maybe Koscielny is enough to guide them through, but if we can find another PL proven CB they can learn their trade off while Per is out, then fine.
Of course, we should have just bought Mustafi weeks ago, but this is Arsenal…
This club is simply not up for glory.Not long ago,Wenger mentioned Walcott and Sanchez when asked about a striker signing.Yesterday,reports suddenly emerged that we’re after a less valued defender cos we’re saving cash for a striker.Why don’t they buy one immediately and see how much is left for a defender afterwards.My verdict is this;arsenal will buy a bargain defender and there’ll be no striker arrival.This club has totally lost the plot.
Would not mind that at all, although Mustafi would obviously be more exciting. And I think we could use both since Mertesacker is out for months, Koscielny has a dodgy achilles and Gabriel is a poor man’s Pepe.
Remember Rui Fonte the youth prospect we had around 2008-09? Think they’re related.
FUN FACT KLAXON
Yes, it’s his brother isn’t it.
Yes, they are brothers.
This club is a joke. It’s not even funny anymore. Wenger is past it. Kroenke is a terrible owner, Gazidis is a liar. The move to the stadium hasn’t done any good on the pitch.
Wenger out. This isn’t 2004. 12 years later, no damn progress.
Who cares about success in the pitch when you have financial success? And the owner is taking 3 million out of the club for their advice which helped us become successful financially. All good.
They’re haggling … again. Like they did with Higuain, like they did with Suarez. Like they do with every club as if we’re some poverty stricken Oliver Twist. What an insult to all the fans who bank roll their cowardice with their hard earned money.
This one would make sense to be fair. Should settle in quickly. And isn’t he the brother of Rui Fonte: the one-time friendly-against-Barnet bothering, Arsenal legend?
van Dijk is by far the best defender at Southampton actualy was one the very bests in league and only on his debut PL season. although we are Arsenal and our priority is “being cheap”. so we’d end up with likes of Fonte or Evans rather than Koulibaly or van Dijk. and as I said mounths back there will be no WC strikers coming. only this time I believe you’d be on my side
FFS just pay the 30 mil for Mustafi and then we can look at signing a striker or Mahrez
Even get rid of some deadwood to make up the funds!
Terrific
Why don’t we go for Samba, Hangeland, Upson?
Will save a bucket-load of money as well.
I don’t really see this one happening. We already have Per and Kos in the squad as 30 plus year eold defenders, we need a younger CB who can play for seasons to come (23- 24 onwards).
I wouldn’t be surprised if our name and need for a CB is being used by Southampton to drive up the price if they are resigned to him leaving.
It’s happened before, see no reason why it won’t happen again. Remember Silvestre & Squillaci?
We made the BFG our club captiain.. Knowing he’d be out for over 6 months.. Seems a bit silly (though if he were not injured then yes I could agree) I am pretty sure we’re making decisions by tieing our hands behind our backs and throwing a large piece of cheese in the air to see who can catch the entire thing in their mouths and then pulling a card out of a hat and assigning that role to said cheese nibbler..
We confirmed BFG as captain BECAUSE he got injured. No point in switching it to someone else and injuring them as well.
There is a rule that the Arsenal captain has to be injured most of the time.
Southampton has been not exactly been selling us world beaters right?
The lack of ambition by our club.
The manager and the owner is mind blowing.
I can’t understand it. Seems like a bad dream.
The comedy keeps on rolling
While we are at it why not get Steve Bould to play at CB. And Freddie Ljungberg on the wings..
I instantly thought of Le Tiss.
How can we win the title when other teams have better managers, Guardiola, Mourinho, Klopp, Conte, Pochetino, Ranieri are all better than Wenger
Hope this isn’t true.
Mustafi is 24 with many years at the top, so a fee of £25-30 million wouldn’t be outrageous what-so-ever!
Got to think of it as long term with Chambers and Holding as future partners once Kos gets past it in a few years time!
No idea what this club thinks half the time!!!
Like everyone I guess almost everyone here, I hope this isn’t true or just some kind of inane bargaining tactic. Either way, we are really beginning to look like a nickel and dime outfit! However the transfer window finishes, I think the fans are owed some straight talk about finances. We were told there was plenty of money available for players and now this; at the eleventh hour (past that really) we are bickering over the price tag of a deal that should have been done weeks ago. If it is true that there are insufficient funds to buy both… Read more »
Is Arsenal management this inept or this cheap? Either way, harder everyday to justify staying a fan of a club… Sad times…
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/story/2930922/arsenal-make-approach-for-fenerbahces-simon-kjaer-source
Who says we can’t move fast when we are really, really, desperate with lots of poop flying everywhere
Mustafi is a world cup winning defender, and how can someone argue paying 5 million extra for a defender would leave us woefully short on funds for a striker, unless we are going for a cheap striker in which case 5 million margin is significant.
To think we are supposed to be one of the richest clubs in the world
In all honesty, knowing how Wenger acts, this may very well turn out to be the kind of defender he signs. I’d love Mustafi. But the less risk money wise, plus PL experience could have him turn a blind eye to his age. But, here’s hoping to a good signing in both the defence and striker department. On a side note. We have been in an “era of transition” since 2004. Stadium, financial stability, etc etc. I wonder how long does the board at Arsenal are comfortable defining as transitional period vs period of failure where we don’t achieve our… Read more »
Wenger is too focused on the monetary side of things these days . Pay over the odds , hell maybe even get held to ransom once or twice but bring in the players that are so obviously needed and be done with it . Signing Mustafi and lacazette would ve the final pieces in the jigsaw for me , you wouldnt have to then go out and do it again every season . I dont believe for 1 second however that the board or owner want to spend over £100m in one summer on new recruits .
Don’t go for Ashley Williams…he’s too old, then, get linked with Jose Fonte a few days later. Seems legit. :Poop:
Get back to me when you have some actual well-sourced news instead of the pernicious claptrap prefaced by the phrase “… according to ESPN”.
not really necessary is it, matey…
I’ve tried to be calm and support Arsene over the years. I’ve been his biggest supporter. But last two seasons he is properly losing the plot. Buy the players you want in plenty of time. It’s easy we have the money. Do it. FFS Arsenal, get a grip before season runs away from us in August instead of February.
Which player have we not been linked with this transfer window? I don’t know.. This is getting extremely tiring.
I just want the transfer window to close soon, so that atleast we fans can atleast put all our hope and expectations to bed. Nothing seems to be happening. Arsenal don’t seem like they are going to pay a penny for any player.
What I don’t understand is the “Our squad is too big” comment. I see 21-22 people over 21. Am I wrong?
Fonte is a decent player and would be a good addition although he is a bit old. This would have to be very short term, like a year and a half.
I would prefer Virgil Van Dijk out of the two Southampton CBs. He’s a good age, at 25, is already a very tidy player and has time to get even better.
Astounded that the player acquisition dream team that is Arsene and Ivan are not considering a last minute ‘swoop’ for John Terry. He’d be cheap, and Gabriel could spend his recovery time teaching him English.
Scrooge McWenger needs to go…Ive had it with him…We have the biggest bank balance in the league and we scraping to pay for a defender…need to be careful with our money…cant afford to make a mistake…what BS….heres the man who didnt pay 35M for Higuain…how much did a 29 year old Higuain sell for…
No of clubs who broke their own transfer records this season: 8
Bournemouth (Ibe)
West Ham (Ayew)
Man United (Pogba)
Swansea (Borja)
Leicster (Musa)
Watford (Issac)
Crystal Palace (Townsend)
Everton (Bolasie)
8 now that burnley signed defour
Whoops, i mean 9 obvs
We need mustafi Wenger! Just pay the money you tight old goat!
We have the biggest bank balance in the league and we scraping to pay for a defender…need to be careful with our money…cant afford to make a mistake…what BS….heres the man who didnt pay 35M for Higuain…how much did a 29 year old Higuain sell for…
No of clubs who broke their own transfer records this season: 8
Bournemouth (Ibe)
West Ham (Ayew)
Man United (Pogba)
Swansea (Borja)
Leicster (Musa)
Watford (Issac)
Crystal Palace (Townsend)
Everton (Bolasie)
What happened to all the bonus TV money this year? Why are we haggling over what surely can’t be more than 3-5 million which, for the size and income of a champion’s league qualifying club, surely isn’t very much?
we need mustafi plz spent our money , if we need to win
???????????
Didnt his brother Rui Fonte play in our youth team?
Don’t think we will buy any one it’s the same crap all the time might has well go and get Alex Scott ladies defender at least she is arsenal
I gave this ten poos because I really want Arsenal to sign Mustafi. We need a player who can make an impact, and who can be a long-term replacement in our aging defense.
REPORT: I can’t take any more reports!! 🙁
Given the age of per and kos, and the relative age of gabriel, a younger signing makes more sense to me, the sooner the better to build a relationship
Arseblog called it right on the arsecast extra this week. We should have been more ruthless with players leaving. Walcott could have been sold for example for 30 million and there’s your defender money. Nothing at all against him but have stood and waited for him to ‘reach his potential’ for years now. But guess what: he already has. He’s just not quite good enough for a title winning club. Nothing I saw Sunday convinces me otherwise either. There are other players who could have perhaps been sold too. Then you are creating extra cash to add to what you… Read more »
Who on earth is going to buy Theo Walcott for 30 million? Some Chinese club, maybe? But I can’t see him wanting to go.
Bolasie just got sold for 30 million and Walcott has more pedigree than him.
West Ham or Everton would have paid that much because they would have had to, current market prices and all that.
Maybe not 30, but surely he’d fetch 20 mil, right?