Freiburg defender Caglar Soyuncu could be set for a move to Arsenal this summer, according to the president of Turkish second-tier side Altinordu, for whom he used to play.
The 21-year-old centre-back, who has already been capped nine times by Turkey, has impressed in the Bundesliga since moving to Germany in a deal worth €2.65 million.
According to Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet, president Seyit Mehmet Ozkan broke the news this week while speaking at a football forum in Istanbul.
“Caglar Soyuncu [is] set to join Arsenal,” he reportedly said.
“Arsenal demanded his youth information from us. We’ll earn from him, if he joins Arsenal. Bayern Munich wants him too, but he’s on the way to the Premier League.”
Why would Ozkan be particularly excited by the prospect of Soyuncu earning Altinordu a sell-on fee?
Well, they cut something of an unusual presence in Turkish football, choosing to develop young, local prospects in a model that resembles that followed by Athletic Bilbao in Spain. More money from such clauses equals more cash to invest in the project.
According to this very interesting piece in the Guardian, “Altinordu may not be a household name yet but they are starting to turn heads among scouts and sporting directors across Europe, including the Premier League.”
Ozkan has previously been quoted as saying: “We have established close ties at sporting director, academy director and chief scout level with Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Roma, Udinese, Villarreal, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid among others as a result of our work.”
We’re usually pretty snarky when it comes to rumours emanating from Turkey, but this could be an interesting one. Is Sven Mislintat again tapping the German market? Let’s wait and see…
Sounds like someone’s trying to get a higher sell-on fee by getting a bidding war going. Do we need another young defender? He’s younger than both Chambers and Holding…
If he’s better than them he’s more than welcome
If they all have the required quality, you can’t have enough of them. Can loan out 1 or 2 of them, if you don’t need them at that moment. Chelsea makes a lot of money with buying players, send them out on loan for a couple seasons and then sell them with a big plus. That actually saves them from FFP punishments. The risk is pretty low considering the fact that the alternative is paying at least 30-40 millions for a quality center half and then it can still work out as it has with Mustafi until now. So if… Read more »
Do you remember a 16 year old called Cesc Fàbregas?
Or a 17 year old Tony Adams, Captain at 21 years old
Great, like the idea of going back to the model of getting great players before anyone had heard of them, or me at least e.g. Vieira, Henry.
Thierry was a world cup winner before we brought him and was playing at Juventus…
Don’t let facts get in the way of narrative!!
Shows my ignorance, change that to ‘before I have heard of them’. Though he didn’t appear in the final. Or change it to Eboue.
He didn’t play in the final and was mainly used as a substitute throughout the tournament.
Per Wikipedia:
…moved to Italian club Juventus for £10.5 million. He played on the wing, but he was ineffective against the defensive discipline exhibited by teams in Serie A, struggling in a position that was uncharacteristic for him, scoring just three goals in 16 appearances.
Absolutely true, he was not the star of France when he was chosen for the squad that won the World Cup. But, you know, he did manage an appearance or two and nicked three goals, more than any teammate. Maybe change it to Eboue might be safer.
Didn’t we have the deal in place before he’d lifted the trophy? Wenger gave him his debut whilst at Monaco. Either way he was far from setting the world alight on the wing at juve…. and I certainly hadn’t heard of him until 4 weeks or so before we signed him, ie, before the world cup had started. Basically, we got in there before all the big clubs were trying to sign him and I think we can all agree that that was pretty amazing.
It’s not the player quality thats the issue. It’s our management and defence system. This needs relooking.
I wonder what the stick will be next season.
You’re right. If only someone would consider changing the management…
I think we will get abdou diallo from freiburg. Moritz voltz commentates for fox here and he scouts for us. He was dropping heavy hints that he is a summer target
V similar to vermaelen
Unlucky with injuries then off to barca for more than he’s worth?
Currently plays at Mainz, though.
Captain of the French u21s
Ozkan has previously been quoted as saying: “We have established close ties at sporting director, academy director and chief scout level with Arsenal, ….
Well, since that “previously” we have changed the chief scout and the academy director, sporting director we never had…
SCRABBLE WEAPON
First player to move from Turkish second division to the bundesliga.
I have a good feeling about this.
From what I’ve seen of him, as a German who watches the Bundesliga simulcast each week, he’s got a lot of potential but is obviously still very raw with some rash decision-making. He’s also more the aggressive type a la Mustafi/Kos than a calm one. Very robust though, even for his relatively slight frame. Can’t say much more since you only get snippets from watching the simulcast but there is clearly interest from bigger clubs from what I’ve heard. Freiburg also usually don’t sell for outrages prices since they need every penny. I guess that’s one reason why we look… Read more »
Another 21yr old?
Nah. Agent stoking it.
We already have Mavropanos and HOlding both under 23yrs. Chambers isn’t that old either.
We need an experienced player to come in, someone around 24 to 27yrs ideal.
De Vrij is out of contract. Koulabaly in last year (may cost more). There is value out there still besides taking gambles on half baked product. Remember City paying a shit ton of money for Stones.
Where’s the poo?
impressive hair…..sign him up
There’s a reason we can’t defend. We refuse to invest properly in our defence. Mustafi excluded. We spend pittance on our back four
I think I understand your point to be different than this, but I’d say up to this point our investment in Mustafi hasn’t turned out to be all that proper…
What I meant was that we went out and spent big money on an established centre half. We need quality defenders now not to keep gambling on youngsters we hope turn out good
Downvote anything you want you delusional wasters but two defensive errors and were out of Europe. Against a world class defence and keeper that we couldn’t score against. More goals conceded than any other team in England from defensive errors. Absolutely shite defensively for more than 10 years now. Fucking awful
Aahh…..arsenal becoming like the Dortmund of yore…..tons of players with unpronounceable names (and maybe even a manager)
Our Defensive prospects
Sheaf
Beiliek
Mavrpaonos
Chambers
Holding
Caglar Soyuncu
All under 25, and all decent prospects. Some of them can be really good as CDM as well. Why the hell do we not produce skilfull wingers & forwards? I hope Mislintat signs some gems in that department as well.
Wenger’s first double winning side was built on a defensive base assembled by Graham. Despite being a CB himself in his playing years, Wenger was never able to reassemble a credible defensive unit and many of his worst signings were defenders, e.g. Cygan, Senderos, Luzhny, Djourou, Squillaci, Silvestre, etc. Rebuilding from the back seems like a great plan to me and one that will pay significant dividends down the road, particularly as defensive players can have longer careers than other outfield players.
Nelson
Nketiah
Mavididi
Smith-Rowe
Disagree