According to the BBC’s David Ornstein, Calum Chambers is set to sign a new long-term contract with the club.
The 23 year old was handed an extension back in November 2017, but apparently new boss Unai Emery wants to give him every chance to fulfill his potential at Arsenal.
Calum Chambers will today sign a new 4yr contract with Arsenal to keep him there until 2022. Only signed 2yr extension in Oct 2017 that tied him down until 2021 but new head coach Unai Emery sees huge potential in 23yo + wants him to compete for starting berth at centre-back #AFC
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) June 29, 2018
After an injury hit start to the season, Chambers made 24 appearances in all competitions, and this reported new contract is a show of faith in him from the new head coach.
With the signing of 29 year old Sokratis Papastathopoulos set to be confirmed in the coming days, the club are also looking to ensure they have young talented defenders coming through.
Rob Holding recently signed a new deal, tying him down for the next four seasons, while young Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos joined in January and showed some promise in a couple of end-of-season appearances.
I’m really happy that they are not getting rid of all those young “English” homegrown”ish” players and only to replace them with all sorts of imports unless they’re top top talents. I do rate Chambers and Holding and do think they should be the future centre back pairing.
Holding Chambers, the dungeon, tied down for some time.
Emery must see the potential there.
Although attackers do hate being in the back pocket of Koscielny, I wouldn’t mind if they’re moved to an even more uncomfortable spot in the Holding Chambers 🙂
Good news! Thought he did really well when called upon this season and, given his age and premier league experience, I think this is very sensible indeed.
Thank God! He’s a good defender, needs to play in a stable, solid team to improve. I’m happy we aren’t just throwing him away just like that
I am really optimistic about Emery developing all of our players and especially the younger ones that seemed to be stagnant for the last 3-4 years including Chambers, Iwobi, Bellerin etc
this is one of the biggest reasons i am excited for the Emery appointment. Him and our backroom team are also adding the necessary older heads to the team i.e. sokratis + lich to complement our young guns.
Very good news. We can now go and buy an experienced defender. Sokratis coming in for BFG and we need 1 more to replace Kos.
We need 3 experienced CB’s Mustafi, Sokratis and new guy(to takeover from Kos)
and we already have 3 young CB’s (Chambers, Holding and Mavropanos) on long-term deals. We can bench our young CB’s for couple of seasons and they’ll eventually takeover from Sokratis and Co.
They’ll all develop brilliantly sat on the bench and out defence is sure to be rock solid with all-new faces.
/sarcasm
That seems to be the theory.and we wonder why youngsters leave…”sign big name player but also keep the lad,he is only 20-21.he’ll be ready in next few years.”and finally the lad leaves for everton,still looking to fulfill his potential at the ripe young age of 29.
Under Wenger the theory was play them until 23-24 until they piss off to our rivals. Yeah, that went very well. No wonder guys like Iwobi act like they’ve already made it. The great Jack Wilshere chose Bournemouth over Arsenal bench. That says a lot about his sense of entitlement. Rob Holding is 22. It’s not like he can’t afford to sit on the bench. He’s at Arsenal FFs. It doesn’t get bigger than this. Nobody is saying he should not start. If he wants to he has to fight for his place with players like Sokratis. At 24 it’ll… Read more »
He joined a smaller team on loan to help build fitness to help get back into the arsenal team, and that tells you he is self entitled? Weird. People will see what they want to see I guess.
It wasn’t to do with Arsenal, he left because England dropped him. The best way to get into the Arsenal XI is to actually play for Arsenal.
Except when you’re not fit enough to play for arsenal and the only way to get fit enough is to play. Depends on the tint of your shades I guess. I always tend to choose to support our players.
I don’t hate jack Wilshere for leaving. I appreciate his desire to be on the pitch. I’m just frustrated that a club like Arsenal has not done enough to keep a player of his quality in the bench.
At the end of the day these guys want to play but what is much more than that is these guys want to win. If you want to win a top quality squad is a must and that means players like Wilshere will end up on the bench or reserves in big games.
Yeah, but why don’t Madrid give poor kovacic a chance. Why do they keep playing Kroos and Modric. Why doesn’t Sergio Ramos make way for some 21 year old CB? The best teams in the world don’t rely on youth unless they are exceptional talent. In our case too we have an exceptional talent like Bellerin for example but just because he is exceptional doesn’t mean he should get a free run in first team. That’s why I’m impressed with the signing of Lichtsteiner . Playing Iwobi, Nketiah, Willock, Nelson is good PR for the Arsenal academy. Nothing more than… Read more »
Yeah i.m down with this too. I think he could be a really good CB. Misused in my opinion at RB. I het the thinking behind it but just didn.t seem a good fit to me
Great news. Really looking forward to see if and how our defenders develop under the new management.
Me too. They all have great potential, so heres to hoping they will shine in a more structured defense.
It gets more confusing by the day. Why are all these players committing to the club when Arsene isn’t there – wasn’t he the only reason we signed new players & got them to stay ??
Good news. I think he could be a big player in years to come, especially if we stop playing him at right back where he’s totally exposed.
Well, it’s partly down to the new structure and partly to the fact that it’s off season, so the players have more time to focus on these things. No reason to blame Arsene.
Now that’s just simply hatred.why the heck even mention Arsene here? And yeah he did make a difference when it came down to signing certain superstar signings,you obviously get that after managing a top European side for 20 plus years.why its so hard to digest and why even drag that into this?
not hatred at all….just pointing out that the allegedly ‘positive’ fans told any of us who thought Arsene should go over & over again that there would be a stream of players heading for the exit once he left. Just a little joke at their expense…….but hatred ? Take it easy there….if you think that’s hatred you’ve lived a very sheltered life.
Funny little joke that mate.
Well for want of a better word, that’s hatred that is.cause you didn’t have to mention that.and which sane person said that?players were on the verge of respectful mutiny under Wenger.nobody with self confidence and backbone was gonna jump ship when he left.and you talked about signing players.Ozil,Lacazette and even s*nchez confessed what was the main lure behind them choosing us over other clubs,no shame in accepting arsene was good ONCE,is there?
It’s not hatred in the slightest. Be real please.
Loads of people said that would happen. You can’t honestly state you didn’t see them saying it.
No shame at all. I’ll gladly state Arsene was great once, good isn’t a strong enough word. You kinda proved my point about the kind of people I’m taking the piss put of. I.e. an assumption that anyone who wanted Arsene to leave couldn’t recognise what he brought to the club…which of course was a nonsensical narrative.
Anyway….I’ll try to resist the temptation going forward….
Players will stay if they are given huge contracts…no matter who the manager is. It is a job for them and most people will go where they are offered the most money. Otherwise one could say the same thing about Unai. Is he the reason we are not able to sign big name players like Nabil Fekir? Wenger was a humanist despite all his flaws…never once heard him blaming individual players in the media unlike lot of the managers that have been quivk to blame players. It’s only natural that a player would prefer to play for a coach like… Read more »
The club belongs to the fans not the managers or players. Wenger loved Arsenal like his only daughter maybe more Wilshere cherished being a Gunner most especially when it comes to playing against Spurs. Now understand something going on in Arsenal is more than just the game but shift in power Ivan Gazidis is trying to prove he could have done more if given the power. Lets continue to support our team and whoever is the manager they may bring except for I cant stand JM as our manager.
A bit strange, since an extension almost surely means a pay rise. Could have been done in a year or so to save the odd million.
I am really happy with that. Holding, Chambers and even Mustafi are our CB for the future. I deliberately mentioned Mustafi because many don’t like him. But imo he has all the attributes to become a world class defender. The problem are his lapsus. That can be fixed with a good tutor beside him. He is still 26 which is young for a defender. That is why I would prefer buying us a world class CB who would also had the skills of Per’s leadership (he was a great tutor to Koscielny) and not Sokratis.
How is 26 young for a defender? For me, a defender that is still error-prone at 26, may just not be good enough. It’s one thing to say a 22 year old is still developing, but not 26! The last I checked, defenders still go over the hill in their 30s like everyone else.
I see nothing class about Mustafi
I thought he looked more assured than Mustafi when he played towards the end of last season. You still feel he has always got a rick in him but maybe that can be coached out of him. Would people be really bothered if Mustafi was the fall guy in all this? Maybe, Emery can coach him into a more consistent player. Once Sokratis signs next week we will have 5 fit centre halves and a crocked Koscielny. The talk about Soyuncu won’t go away. Maybe Mustafi will be sold to raise money for him.
He’s not really my cup of tea, he’s incredibly slow over the first few yards and lacking in any type of agility or athleticism, he really struggles against quick and nimble players and is likely more suited to a team that parks the bus, rather than one that regularly has him parked on the halfway line.
Maybe moving more towards that defensive structure is part of the plan going forward.
In as much as I mostly agree with your assessment of Chambers, these moves by Emery seem very deliberate and I, for one, am looking forward to how these lads fare under the new gaffer. The jury’s still out…
It makes sense to have a variety of players not just clones of each other though. Emery is known to tailor his sides and tactics and we all remember how good the kos-per partnership looked despite mertesacker being “too slow”.
could be that chambers is more techincally and positionally astute while holding is moulded into a Kos type aggressive defender who comes out. Can remember Holding did a darn good job of muzzling Diego Costa in the Fa Cup final a few years back!
Costa Out muscled Holding for Chelsea’s only goal.
I agree to an extent. Ospi still flapped at it too though.
Heard Dragomir is leaving.shame,one of the prospects I was really looking forward to seeing in the first team.
Great news. He has bags of quality/potential. Does this indirectly mean we are no longer going for Caglar Soyoncu? Unless of course we are offloading Mustafi, but even still there’s some decent depth at CB for once, so long as Holding/Chambers continue on an upward trajectory.
May be they learned from Alexis’ transfer fiasco. If you have a long term contract, club always have the upper hand in negotiation when it comes to selling. Or how could we sell Woichech Szczesny for 10 mill…
I like this policy of keeping our players under contract. Seems more stable for the club
Koscielny. Mustafi. Chambers. Socrates. possibly Soyuncu. Holding. Mavropanos. Bielik.
Even if the latter three are to go on loan, that is a lot of centre-backs. Especially when you consider that Nacho and Kolasinac have some experience playing there too. Koscielny has had a long-term injury at probably the worst time in his Arsenal career, and taking into account his age and the fact that he was way below his impeccable standards last season, it may be that the curse of Arsenal captains is set to continue next season.
Our squad is seriously lopsided, We seem to be addressing this, but something has to give and I completely agree with Tim Stillman’s article today.
If we get any type of offer for Ozil this summer? I think he’s off.
Also I wouldn’t be surprised if one of Lacazette/Aubameyang were to leave, providing we can use that cash to bring in a top class wide player, neither player is going to want to play second fiddle.
Well Tim usually gives a more sober, objective and balanced view on all things Arsenal than some of the other Arsenal bloggers I have had the displeasure of being addicted to.
I sincerely hope you are wrong about everything else though. Ozil, Aubameyang and Lacazette are all tied down to fresh and long-term contracts, which I hope will deter Arsenal from selling and other clubs from properly bidding for arguably our three most competent players at the Club, bar Aaron.
i hope there is some news on Mr Holding. Very young, lots of potential. 3 years from now and back three of Mavropanos, Chambers and Holding. that would be an Arsenal Arsene dream’t off even though he never wanted to play back 3. I just drunk wrote this;).
Arsenal forever:)