Various reports today say that Arsenal will sign Stephan Lichtsteiner on a one year deal, with an option for an extension should they choose to take that up.
The 34 year old Swiss international is available on a free transfer when his contract with Juventus expires, and he would provide back-up to Hector Bellerin as well as adding some experience to the squad.
Lichtsteiner adds not just the wisdom that comes with age, but also a track record of winning things, including 7 Serie A titles with Juve, the Coppa Italia four times, and Swiss league title with Grasshoppers – as well as almost 100 international caps.
Known for his beautiful singing voice, which teammates have likened to ‘angels serenading the very essence of nature itself’, his arrival seems to indicate that the new football executive structure at Arsenal – the IRS* – plus new head coach Unai Emery want to address the age profile of our defenders.
There’s a lot of youth and potential, but not enough ‘Been there, done that, worn the t-shirt’.
Some of them have been there; some of them have done that (or something closely approximating that – although Meatloaf said he would do anything but that if put in the same position); and some of them have worn t-shirts – particularly Hector Bellerin who is set to launch a range of sleeveless tops made from the fur of roadkill foxes and badgers – but very few have combined all three, which goes a long way to explain the Gunners sixth place finish last season.
Does it though? Does it really explain that? Well, it does if you want it to, and that’s all that matters. And if you don’t want to believe it, that’s fine. The world will keep turning. Probably.
Unless it falls out of the milky way and plummets into a new and weird galaxy where things actually make more sense than they do right now.
Here’s hoping.
*IRS = Ivan, Raul, Sven
Doesn’t seem exciting, but it makes a lot of sense, particularly after that interview with Emery when he spoke of PSG and highlighted that a key issue for them was that they had a mental barrier as they didn’t know how to mentally overcome adversity in a game as many hadn’t experienced it before, so you can tell he’s someone the appreciates the role of experienced heads in a dressing room, as intangible as it may seem to us as fans. Probably one of Wenger’s big mistakes when he ushered out the experienced heads for project youth (though most of… Read more »
One of Wenger’s foibles was having a strict policy of only offering a one year rolling contract to anyone over 30.
As a result they tended to usher themselves out the door when someone less fussy waved a two or three year one at them.
Wenger dropped that policy years and years ago. Examples include Cech (4 year deal aged 33), Kos (2.5 year deal aged 31); he was even giving Rosicky 2 year deals when he was in his 30’s.
Yeap, that was after losing Pires the F***** King because he was 30 and wouldn’t give him a 2 year deal. We then gave a 4 year deal to 29 year old Arteta…One of the few things I’ll never “forgive” Wenger…
Hard to shoot anything down like this with no transfer fee and probably very reasonable wages if you look at it as an insurance policy or a depth move (which it certainly seems given just a one year deal) while we hopefully shore up other areas on the pitch this Summer.
Like an April Fool’s article but wrong date for that.
Honestly this defensive signings are a bit under_whelming.Reminds me of kim Kàllstrom.
Major exception is he’s not injured and is a genuinely good defender
yet
and Kim Kallstrom was a roaring lion. I don’t know about footballing, but the one match he played, I had great fun.
Kim Kallstrom was a legend, if they’re anything like him we’ll be amazing next season.
Kim signing was legendary. He helped win an FA Cup.
Everybody’s trying to sign defenders – it’s a tough market, especially for a team not in the Champions League and without megabucks
Indeed. Very sound point. For what it’s worth, I think this is really good signing. Thumbs – way – Up !
Karlstroom springs to mind ?
Lets hope he doesnt develop a back injury playing beach football this summer.
Good addition… Maybe a back up to Bellerin
Just waiting to see a proper DM in our set up
IRS should do that for me
Heh I quite like the IRS acronym. But it got me thinking about the surnames as well.
Let’s hope our *SMG can get us firing again.
Come On You Gunners!
SMG = Sanlehi,Mislintat,Gazidis
Now, to wait for the outrage at the use of a gun metaphor or whatever.
I think this is very astute. We need right back cover, we need experience in defence, we need to save wonga and we need winners. 4 birds, one very scary looking Swiss stone.
Lichtsteiner I think will be a very useful signing.
Ive seen him play several times and he’s always impressed me with his no nonsense style and effectiveness going forward.
He has that Juventus defense winning mentality like Chiellini. He’s also a bit nuts and offers a lot of bastardosity.
One of the best right backs in the world the last 5-10 years, and after seeing him play this season as well, I think he has another couple of very good seasons left in him.
Signing definately approved by me!
Bastardosity, lol. Great word. That is normally a characteristic I associate with oil money wearing blue. But a bit of toughness at Arsenal would be welcome for sure.
While we let our younger players mature and before finding more long term defensive solutions this is a good signing. And who knows, we might get more than one season out of him.
Good to see us strengthening our defence!
Are we buying on field coaches maybe? Sokratis looks like a perfect role model for Mavropanos and Lichtensteiner could be a very helpful mentor for both, Hector and Granit.
Think no one of us has a vague idea of what IRS and Unai have in mind with this squad so it’s hard to judge certain signings. I will wait until the transfer window closes and see where we are then.
As the Ramsey quotes seemed pretty encouraging I think the biggest risk of losing a top player is gone. So now we can concentrate on making that squad stronger.
I would’ve gone with SIR rather than IRS.
‘The new manager had better mind himself and cooperate when dealing with SIR’
Sounds kind of menacing, like a Bond villain.
IRS sounds more menacing to an American!
When i think of lichsteiner and sokratis, I think of carl weathers. There is still a lot of meat on their bones. Take the home to the Emirates. Add in a potato (spudran Mustafi), some broth (nacho flavor), baby you got a stew going!!
Not totally sure what this comment means, but I like the positivity of it. So gimme a spoonful … thumbs up!
It’s an Arrested Development reference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Weathers
Weirdly its just what we need as cover.
He’s no Silvestre thats for sure
Good signing. For years, I’ve enjoyed saying his name out loud. I’d often just call him “Derelicte” in the voice of Zoolander’s Mugatu, though of course Lichtsteiner is not a tramp, so far as I’m aware.
I think it’s a good squad signing. He’s great cover for Bellerin, he’s pretty much won everything with Juventus so has plenty of experience in dealing with big game pressure and will certainly offer us a more physical and robust option in defence and of course he’s free.
The transfer money we would have paid can be invested into a long term central midfielder or goalkeeper.
We need players who can organise a defence, so if he can bring those leadership skills to this group for 12 months I’m all for it.
We already have AMN.
He may be less experience but has better recovery pace.
Would prefer we get the best player at Cback and forget about rback.
Rather spend what we will on this fellows salary for a year to put some extra dosh on a better option at CBack than an aging Greek player with less than a stellar season from…Dortmund …again.
I can remember warning people that Arsenal will eventually fall behind Spuds and Liverpool and that we’d finish 6th place…but as usual – I was called “negative” and what not.
Now we are all seeing it now. Linked to a washed 34 year old rb (good thing he’s free) and paying 17m for a crap 30 year old cb. Brace yourselves ladies and gentlemen – we won’t be making the top 4 anytime soon.
Wenger, The board and Kroenke have destroyed this club. We are finished.
Glass half empty Trez? 🙂
I, for one, am pleased that he take his personal hygiene seriously.
Who exactly did you warn and how? Were those “people” able to intervene/help? Who called you “negative”? And what else did they call you?
Those are the questions you should be asking yourself
No, I believe you were called a cunt and it looks like you haven’t changed.
It could be a short to long-term move… Sell Bellerin for megabucks to Barca to be reinvested in the team in more troublesome areas. Have lichtsteiner for a season to maintain quality and bring some winning mentality – but much cheaper. And at the same time develop maitland-miles for the position long-term. I’d be open to that scenario.
His legs still seem to work but 34 is not the age to be adapting from Serie A to the EPL surely.
I guess this signing + Sokratis is partly with the intention of building a more competitive mentality among the players
Just a poor decision to bring older players into PL. Its injury waiting to happen. The amount of fast wingers like Sane etc they will be facing, its difficult to see us punching above where we are currently if we keep signing old legs. We should be looking at players close to or in their prime rather than a 29yr old Greek defender who has had an underwhelming season. Even if we wanted the experience to bring someone at 29yrs, at least get someone who has been at top top level like a Boateng of Javi Martinez from Bayern, both… Read more »
The argument of slow players struggling against fast wingers seems faulty to me. Sure, it could happen, but it’s not necessarily a given. A good system could help a slow defender hold his own against a fast winger. Case in point our very own BFG.
Been reading this blog for years but first time poster.
This looks like a good signing to instill a winning mentality into this set of players at the club. #Coyg
LALS- like a loan signing.
Still seem to be doing the same as before new set up. Nothing has changed.
Cheap options worthy of mid table or at best europa.
We already have AMN showing great potential at fullback. Just switch him to his natural side.
Why reinvent the wheel and add someone to salary structure we don’t need?
Well at least its a one year deal. Insurance policy.
‘Loaf says he wouldn’t but a fiver says he would………. for love
We have one rb on this squad, no AMN is not a rb. If anything lichsteiner can play in europe, early fa rounds, league cup. And hes a good player that cost nothing. Some of you guys need to get a grip.
With everyone mentioning Maitland-Niles playing at full back is it mad to view this as a weird way of managing Jack’s likely departure? Hear me out – Maitland-Niles is a talented young player who’s gained first team experience in a variety of positions this season (midfield in early stages of Europa and Cups, fullback in other games) with Emery coming out and saying he’s excited by him. With the Lichsteiner signing we get a similar option to Nacho/Kolasinac on the left with him and Bellerin on the right (experience/youth) and instead of continuing to use AMN as a talented back… Read more »
He’s also a much better midfielder than fullback IMO.
Rambling Pete is that you?
3 years too late by my reckoning