Earlier this month Valencia boss Marcelino confirmed that Gabriel was on his shopping list as the Spanish side looked to bolster their defence ahead of a new season.
The pair worked together previously at Villarreal before the Brazilian joined Arsenal in January 2015.
Now, according to the Mirror, the centre-half is on the brink of a move back to Spain in a deal worth around £10m.
It’s well known that the Gunners need to streamline their squad, but the 26 year old seemed to be quite far down the departure list behind players like Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Debuchy – linked today with a move to Marseille – Carl Jenkinson and Lucas Perez.
It’s an interesting one if it goes through as with a three at the back system real depth is required at centre-half. Calum Chambers has also been tipped to move away, leaving Arsene Wenger with just Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding as recognised central defenders – although Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac are capable of filling in when required.
It’s a move that probably makes sense for the player too, as he has found himself down the pecking order and would likely play more regularly in Valencia.
Let’s see how it goes.
Good riddance. Nice guy, average defender.
Always a decent, honest player I thought.
worked his butt off, but got turned in the box too many times for me. I wish him well because he’s a great professional and I also loved watching him hobbling around on one leg celebrating the Community Shield win!
This means we’re keeping Chambers, no?
I like his grit.
Sorry for top post, but looks like Valencia are quite comfortable it’s done: https://twitter.com/valenciacf/status/897887619090186241
LOL at the -39 thumbs down.
What, people are supposed to say that every players on the squad is World Class??? Grow up people! He’s an average defender and it doesn’t take deep Football knowledge to see it.
My thumb down was because of the tone of the comment. Show respect – he’s an Arsenal player.
It’s a pretty mean-spirited way of evaluating a player tbh. Gabriel had some very good performances playing for us in a league where he couldn’t even speak the language. How many British-born defenders have gone to South America, or even France, or Italy to develop their game? Zero.
At least Gabriel left his home and his comfort zone to play in Spain and then come to England to represent us. He deserves a little respect.
I don’t think people like the phrase “good riddance” for a player who has always given everything and has never moaned about his lack of opportunities. No ones saying he’s world class…
Ben..World class? You got no class…bit ironic. Good luck to Gabriel if he is sold.
“players” got my back up! 🙂
I honestly think language was a major problem for him. He was an above avg player for me.
Can we sell some of our fans instead? This constant barrage of negativity is getting tedious.
Wish I could give thumbs up more than once on this one, like maybe 100 times.
How much do you think we’d get for a fan, though? If Kyle Walker is worth £50m, I’d guess an average non-playing fan might be worth at least £45m.
Who would buy them? You couldn’t give these fools away.
You have to list them on a free…and even then, they still hang around.
Really?? He’s the perfect squad player: can play all across the backline and not short of a bit of pace and aggression. KEEP HIM.
Good player but language barrier has to be a serious problem. I am hoping that we might hold onto chambers. With some coaching (cough) i think he coukd become a good defender.
How about we offer the Gabriel cash with Chambers packed off to the south coast in exchange for that tall Dutch bloke who interests The Chavs and the Pool.
I would love that just to piss those two clubs off, albeit he would improve us massively considering Per and Kos are in their twilight.
Yeah the TBD is good, would be a quality addition to the squad.
But anyway, if Gabriel goes, Chambers has to stay for sure.
Bad thing is we lose one of our two pacy centre halfs, and the other, Kos, is not getting any quicker.
TDB, I mean.
Van Dijk, Mustafi and Kosc could be a spectacular back three. Speed, aggression, height, technique. Should’ve gone in for him after his first year at soton, ability was plain to see. That said, Lovren looked a world beater prior to his Liverpool move..
To be honest, Mustafi has had more bad games than Gabriel. Mustafi was a disaster against Bayern.
The tall Dutch bloke who Southampton bought for 11m quid. The same price as Gabriel. I get the ‘give him respect’ arguments above & good luck to him if he goes but let’s be honest : Gabriel has been a poor signing & it’s time to move him on.
I’d rather keep Chambers than sign Van Dijk, who’s proven he has an attitude problem.
Another issue I have with Van Dijk is his pace. He can’t maintain position and likes to wander forward with the ball, leaving the back exposed. He also doesn’t read the game as well as someone like Per, so his positioning can be exploited.
Oh, you’ve just proved he is a good for for Arsenal: Wanders forward and lets defence exposed.
or we sell gabriel for 10mil ofer the 10mil+20mil more + chambers for that bloke at sotonl.
it woukd ve ideal deal selling chambers do 20mil and gabriel for 10mil realisng their wages and buying beadt defender for 30mil offering him 100.000k per w.
Not tomention chambers is soton lad coming fromtheir youth system.
if only was simple as thar.
I’m going out on a limb and guess you have a pint in your other hand?
doesntrevrtbdy? ikmow idoo.
If Liverpool couldn’t pry him away from Southampton for 50m, then what makes you think 30m will do the trick? Arsene is that you??? lol jk
Ok. How about we add one more pound?
If Gabriel is going Chambers is most definitely no longer on the departure list.
This is The Arsenal, remember 😉
Wenger tipped him for big things initially but Gabriel didn’t make the most of the opportunity given to him at the Arsenal. Good luck to him. I’d rather keep Chambers as back up CB if we are to keep one of him and Gabriel.
Thumbs up for you name!
Also agree with comment, hope/want Chambers to make it with us
Wouldn’t have a problem with this if we are going to sign somebody else (or maybe keep Chambers).
Sell Chambers and get KOULIBALY. The guy is a monster.
Wouldn’t mind that much to be honest, 10m seems decent money. Would rather get rid of Gabriel and keep Chambers than the other way round
Gabriel not worthy of a rating on the Poo-o-meter?
Replace with VVD. Send CC to Southampton on loan as sweetener.
Wenger to pay 50-60M for a defender in my life time probably Xmas has come early.
Van Dyke for £70m is not worth it tbh. Arsenal needs to improve our defensive coaching set up, Mertz, Kos and Mustafi as a big 3 is strong enough if we have the correct defensive set up.
This is the deal I’ve been hoping for all summer. Include a buy-back clause on Chambers, as I think we can all see he has the potential to go far. Plus I think a Southampton return would suit him, us and them for several reasons. The final piece in a formiddable defence and the introduction of a natural heir to Per.
Unlikely but my fingers are crossed!
VVD for 70M? No way he’s worth that much. Then sell CC with a buy back then that means we will be selling for alot cheaper the market rate for him so we can get a buy back clause in the transfer.
He’s clearly a player that can be improved upon. Fine. But not top quality.
Only question is with both him and Chambers likely leaving it does leave us a bit short at centre half. Especially when you consider the recurring injuries to Mertesacker and Koscielny.
Hopefully a signing can be made of a defender of good quality who first and foremost can defend.
A new quality centre half and midfielder are a necessity this season.
what recurring injuries has per had, he missed last season due to a knee injury. Koscielny only missed 5 league games last season, one of those games cos he was late back form international duty.
If this happens, it’s two things.. 1. Chambers is staying 2. It’s confirmation that has no intention of using dnaSTAT acquisition and system, seeing as they’re data was led to Perez, Elneny (whom Wenger obviously doesn’t rate) and Gabriel. Possibly Chambers too Would be a shame imo. Sure it’s not perfect if all 3 don’t make it (still think Perez could’ve bee an astute buy), and they overlooked Griezman, but no system is perfect (scouting led to Sanogo, Wenger has overlooked a few players that went on to be stars). I think the use of data and trusting in it… Read more »
Chambers was definitely a Wenger pick based on human scouting, he’s mentioned it in interviews. He decided he had to buy Chambers after watching him play Arsenal.
Walcott wasn’t a Stat DNA purchase yet despite all the evidence to the contrary that he is a sprinter who’s has his spikes nicked he has managed to be a regular for 10 years. I think it’s time for the old man to accept stat DNA.
I like Gabriel, the timing of his injuries have been unlucky.
Always felt given a consistent run he could have been a very good player for us.
If I had to pick a centre half I think we’d sign this summer I’d punt on Kostas Manolas.
What’s your favorite memory of Gabriel? For me it’s that rapid fire interview he did with Ospina where he expresses bafflement over televisions, fancy dress parties, and books. And he doesn’t like eggs.
Seems a lovely fellow, but you get the feeling there isn’t much happening between the ears there.
What a nasty disrepectful comment
So you like eggs, then.
No that there isn’t much happening between your ears.
Last man tackle on Lukaku and celebrating it like a goal.
Don’t think that last part is fair. I remember him from the interview following the Chapecoense plane chrash. Seemed quite articulate, all considered. Still get emotional watching it. Hope he does well.
Seeing him score his (only) goal at the Emirates against Bournemouth in person is right up there for me.
Which is such a prerequisite for being a good footballer. John Terry anyone?
Be a shame if he does leave, all the physical qualities to be a top defender but lacked the language skills to effectively communicate with his teammates. Nowhere near as bad a player as some of the centre halves we’ve had in recent times, with a run of games in Spain there’s a decent chance of him making Brazil’s World Cup squad (don’t laugh, I’m being serious!).
Keep him, now accustomed to the PL, good age. There are far more worth getting rid of.
Nacho is a central defender now.
Then we are short of left wing backs. Gibbs will leave and Bramall isn’t good enough to play PL (yet), if something should happen to Sead.
Sead is indestructible
Not if you play him in probably more than 60 games this season.
If Sead plays left center back it’s the same problem. When gibbs goes, we ARE short a backup LWB. Unless Wenger continues to try to push Ox there. If Sead and Nacho are our LWBs then we’re short a left sided CB.
OOoor, we’re still going to see a significant amount of 4 at the back this season.
If Ox plays there we are short of a right wing back. Should have 2 for every position.
I don’t get why we want to get rid of centre backs unless we bring someone new in. I know Nacho and Sead can do a job there but if we sell Gibbs both are needed for the left wing back position as we have to rotate there with the amount of games we will be playing this season. So that leaves us with 6 centre backs, including Gabriel and Chambers. That’s the minimum needed if you play with a back 3, if you ask me. If we sell Gabriel and Chambers, we should definitely look for at least one… Read more »
Spot on, my thoughts exactly. Hope we bring someone in if he goes.
On the other hand since Wenger does no defensive drills and doesn’t allow the established defenders in the coaching team to do any defensive coaching, we could have 10 centre halves and it wouldn’t make any difference.
Sell Gabriel and sign Virgil van dijk ??
Am I the only one here who thinks this is a strange move?
Why do you think it’s strange?
I was under the impression that Jenkinson and Debuchy were the ones where it’s a case of “sorry it didn’t work out but thanks for your efforts and all the best elsewhere” while Gabriel albeit having had his dodgy moments is a solid defender with lots of potential to develop and be one for the future.
You know that clubs need to want them and agree with a fee and the player and clubs also need to agree to a new contract? How much action could there be on either of the 2? Both are coming off serious injuries and haven’t had a run of games to prove they are back.
Sure but I find it hard to believe there aren’t clubs out there, and good ones at that, who wouldn’t want them.
The only way we should let him go is if Chambers is staying. Been a decent player for us. We really need to get Debuchy and a few others out. Something tells me that Debuchy is being a t*at and is happy to stay and pick up a high wage.
Debuchy was actually very decent when he first came to us. If he could manage to stay fit I wouldn’t be against keeping him on for a year while we prepared his exit and look at strengthening our defence.
I would to. Use him for Europa exclusively at RWB. Let him build his value and maybe by January if he has a good run of games under his belt he can be transferred to a club that has issues at RB/RWB.
Same with Gibbs( I would give him a 2 year extension at a reasonably lower wage of course) if he can’t be sold next summer because i don’t think Bramall is ready.
oddly enough debuchy played a couple of reserve preseason games at CB and was very good.
Really annoying that the only players that are getting transfer interest are those who are in and around the first team squad rather than those we really want to move on
He’s just respecting his contract as Wenger sates as everyone should…
Wouldn’t you? lol Just half his salary is alot for most of us in comparison but athletes careers don’t last forever. I don’t want to hear this if they live on the cheap they can stretch if for generations crap. You start making some decent money you start to spend more of it. Its only human nature.
I laugh when I see people say any player should take a pay cut to get playing time, its their living, how many of those saying take a pay cut, would themselves take a pay cut to do the same job somewhere else.
No pooh-o-meter blogs?
He is versatile and pretty solid across the back line, and I like that. After seeing Holdings performance last week I realised hey may not be ready for a PL season as a starter. So then we need to keep chambers. At the present moment I prefer Gabriel, but I guess there is space for chambers to develop. Hmmm…
as things stand I expect our first choice starting 3 cbs to be Mustafi, Kos and Monreal.
with holding, Per and Chambers as the back up options.
and of course Kolasinac and Elneny as extra options if needed.
I do not include Bielik as an option as I expect he will be loaned out for the season. But maybe that idea has changed and he is seen as a back up option.
Kinda gutted if this is the case. Hoping this means Chambers isn’t intended to be sold as selling Gabriel – a quality squad depth option who’s worked hard for us and done more than not – would leave us with 5 CBs in Mertesacker (who is in his last season and won’t be able to play twice a week for long periods as noted around time of retirement), Koscielny (world class, gammy heels), Mustafi, Holding, and Chambers. Sure we have Monreal and Kolasinac but they’re also our only LWBs… unless Gibbs is staying, it’s the only reason I can think… Read more »
How reliable is the Mirror?
Nooooooooooooooo………………..
10m is INSANE. What is wrong with us??!?
Shame, as he looked like he *might* have been finding his feet before his injury.
If this goes through, Chambers now needs to stay (unless he’s used as a makeweight in a deal for Van Dijk of course!).
According to the Mirror
well he’ll still be here in three years then
If Gabriel and Chambers are sold, I really hope we are looking at bringing in a replacement. I know we have lots of decent “options” at the back, but I think defense will always be an issue if we are constantly using options, rather than having solid players playing in their best positions. Nacho and Sead should be battling for the LWB spot, the other can fill in as the left CB at times.
My top targets would be De Vrij then Koulibaly.
I thought he was starting to settle well towards the end of last season, just before he got injured. CB is the hardest position to settle into, and as the right side of a back 3 he fits the bill perfectly. I will be disappointed to see him go if he does. He was superb in the semi against city, and he was starting to take on a lot more responsibility. At 26 he’s the type of player we need to be keeping.
Hopefully we’ll replace him with an experienced CB & not another moneyball player. Someone who can defend set pieces would be good.
you know Arsenal in the last two seasons have conceded less set piece goals than Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, and only 2 more goals than Chelsea and Spurs.
Sell. Next.
He’s like the Elneny of the defense.
BUT he is injured. What are Valencia going to do meanwhile till he mends? Doesn’t make much sense.
And I suppose this means Chambers is going to cycle into the team.
I wonder whether this was why the Bielik loan move to Germany was pulled.
Hope Chambers goes on another prem league loan. I think the player we saw the first 6-8mths is still in there.
He’s a good squad player but perhaps deserves regular football elsewhere. I always quite liked him. Just the odd scarey moment that meant he couldn’t nail down a starting place. I would keep him given the choice but it would be stupid to sell him and Chambers.
Personally I think this sits ok with me. Gabriel is solid back up and hasn’t really done too much wrong – just has never done too much right either. Committed and solid, just not amazing. And I also think this is good news for Chambers, and might even be a show of confidence from the club in his abilities if we are willing to sell an international defender ahead of him. Don’t t get me wrong – Chambers will make mistakes. But more due to his age and experience, where as Gabbys are more down to his lack of ability.… Read more »