Chelsea centre-back David Luiz is the latest name to be linked with a move to Arsenal as the Gunners look to strengthen the defence before the transfer window closes at 5pm on Thursday.
L’Equipe (and a fair few others) are reporting that the mop-headed 32-year-old Brazil international refused to train with the Blues this morning in an attempt to force a move to the Emirates.
Breaking | L'Équipe report that Chelsea defender David Luiz is seeking to force a move to Arsenal. More follows.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) August 7, 2019
Unai Emery is known to be on the hunt for a centre-back to replace Laurent Koscielny who moved to Bordeaux yesterday three weeks after refusing to go on the club’s pre-season tour of the USA.
Edu obviously knows Luiz well from his time with the Brazil team and Chelsea are apparently open to him leaving, despite the fact he penned a two-year extension in May. He’s in his second spell at Stamford Bridge having spent a couple of years at Paris Saint Germain. So far though, we’ve not yet made a formal bid.
Arsenal are also said to be interested in RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano and Juventus’ Daniele Rugani. At 20 and 25 respectively they certainly look like longer-term options but would also be considerably more expensive than Luiz.
At this point, it certainly feels like the latter is more achievable. Let’s see what happens.
Now that we lose bart Simpson we get Sideshow Bob
Hahaha!
Considering we’ve signed Saliba and loaned him back until the end of next season. Buying a short term option does kind of make sense when you think as well Holding is on his way back from injury. I am not totally opposed to Luiz as a defender. My one concern being his attention span is similar to that of a Labrador. Although he can absolutely rifle a free kick, I mean sure, most of them go into the car park but occasionally one of them does find its way into the top corner which is naturally fairly useful. He also… Read more »
Depends on what Chelsea want for him, doesn’t it. If he’s seen as a “short term” option, he could be a relatively expensive one. That said, I’d take (almost) anyone over Mustafi.
That’s the equivalent of choosing Gonorrhea over Syphilis.
Who is which …?
David lolz is gonorrhoea. Because of the hair.
we need to mobilize support and ensure that he gets back to Chelsea’s training ground. critical that he starts training with them again. don’t need an understudy to mustafi!
Perfect partner for Musti.
It’ll be like a season long gag reel.
Could there be a more appropriate defender for Arsenal? A defender that thinks he is a striker! How has it taken this long…
David Luis keeps trying to force a move but we keep knocking him back
All clowns are not equal. Mustafi is the bigger clown. Ergo, I’d prefer Luiz on the pitch to Mustafi.
Luiz and VAR does worry me. First time to face it in the league, him and Mustafi could make a world record of penalty give-a-ways
I think pretty much every defender in the PL is worried about VAR. They should be.
Im worried about that crap too. Heres too a lot of interruptions to slow down the tempo. Soon we will be seeing 30 minutes half time shows.
Maybe we’ll sell Mustafi. Right?
Hopefully, but if necessary I think Arsenal should just pretend not to be in when he comes to work. Make sure the car park is empty and all the curtains are drawn and hope he goes away.
I haven’t feared seeing a player on the pitch more since Drogba was playing
Visit Rwanda’s sponsorship would be under threat with this potential signing. Head & Shoulders would miss a trick to sponsor Arsenal with the flowing locks of Luiz & Guendouzi on the pitch.
How would you tell them apart from a distance?
Getting a better prescription on your glasses.
The midfielder would be the one much further back then the erstwhile defender
Wouldn’t bank on it in our team
Its funny we’re linked with Luiz as I thought Matteo was just like him in the way he runs (as well as the obvious hair cut similarity)
He’s better than Mustafi, scores a few free kicks and has great hair. What’s not to like?
I was hoping for a defender who can defend
It’s true he would be an improvement on Mustafi
Almost anyone would be an improvement over Mustafi – and almost certainly cheaper too!
Anonymarse that made me laugh at loud
No no no no no no no no no no.
I know I’m in the minority, but I think Luiz can do a job. He’s not elite, but he’s better than Mustafi and definitely adds some grit to the back line. If we can’t get Upamecano or Rugani, I wouldn’t mind Luiz as a stopgap until we can sign a better CB within the next two windows. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than Mustafi.
A damaged traffic cone is better than Mustafi
Exactly.
a damaged cone? if only we still had Ryo Miyaichi he would’ve restored it to full health!
“Maybe he just really likes cones.” My favorite come t ever.
…or even an ice cream cone ?
This. If we can’t fetch a proven-yet-promising youngster to last us more than a couple of seasons, Luiz should be able to get some weight off Sokratis’ head and shoulders.
Luiz is one of the best ball-playing CB’s in the league. Might pair well with the no-nonsense Sokratis. I think people are getting unnecessarily hysterical about Luiz. He was solid last season.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s ideal. Ideal would be an exceptional and younger defender. I just don’t think Luiz is garbage, as some are suggesting.
When people say makes constant calamities like Mustafi, I ask them to name me the big blunders he made last season or the season before? He’s been rock solid for both Chelsea and Brazil for 2 years now, but people don’t pay attention to him, so still think he’s shit.
In a back 3 though right? His a luxery playe. Something we already have enough off and which we can’t afford with our makeshift backline
Didn’t they get thrashed 6-0 by city?
Didn’t we get thrashed by [insert name of club we should have beaten last season]? What’s your point?
I think he has not been as solid a defender as you’re suggesting.
I really don’t think he’s much better than Mustafi, if any. He’s contrived to continually make mistakes in a Chelsea backline far more solid and well drilled than ours. I get that he’s a bit of an asshole, which I think is always welcome, but positionally he’s one of the worst players around (in our rivals’ teams anyway). Imagine not only having midfielders and wing backs who wander and do as they please but centre backs as well! He’s constantly shooting from 30 yards and trying to pick Hollywood passes which 95% of the time miss by quite some distance.… Read more »
To be fair if you gave me a choice between Mustafi and Luiz i would take Luiz
I wish someone would take Mustafi.
1 person did, let’s hope they are managing a football club somewhere.
He’s used to the premier league. He thrived under Conte and Sarri. I’d take him. Perfect stopgap
Totally agree. His composure, ball control and ability to bring the ball out of defence also make him a far better option than Mustafi.
So its a no from you, is it?
For goodness sake, stop sitting on the fence…
Luiz: no. Please no. The guy is a tool.
Yes he’s better than Mustafi but is that the bar we are really setting now for Arsenal?
Yes, the bar we’re setting for the club right now is ‘better’. I’m not thrilled with Luiz, but if we’re looking to bring in a younger defender or two (or develop existing youngish defenders), Luiz gives us a year’s breathing space with a highly experienced PL defender. We don’t know when Holding will be available and match fit, and I don’t trust Chambers at CB.
Learning from the Lolo himself, lol
Anthem for Arsenal’s defense: Send in the Clowns
Don’t want this, what’s it gonna be? A 3 year contact for a 32 year old on 100k pw ?
Two years tops. Could be good business. He’s better than Mustafi and Chambers, and we really only need him for a year before Saliba arrives, and then Luiz can go play in the retirement league over in the US.
What happened to our “clear plan and strategy” for the transfer window? A last minute deal for an aging defender who regularly walks into rakes doesn’t feel like that
Well, in real life good plans and strategy sometimes fails. Maybe you end up with plan c, becuause there is no such thing as a perfect plan. Hence the expression “when life gives you lemons make lemonade”.
Although in this case, we’ve taken the lemons, not quite wrung enough lemon juice out of it, and decided to just have lemon zest shavings inside of a glass of water instead.
I guess we are short on numbers, so any defender with a decent enough track record would do.
That is actually a pretty good strategy as it has been shown that some of the most important compounds and minerals such as vitamin C, potassium, calcium, bioflavinoids, and limonene, are highest in the rind of citrus and especially lemons.
Fair enough, but wasn’t that before Koscielny threw his toys?
And our shirt…the fuker!
C’mon bruv. I don’t think you can say there’s been no strategy this window. It’s maybe been more long term with Saliba hopefully hitting the ground running alongside holding in 2020. Not everything is in our control and we can’t just magic another Van Dyke (fnar, Dyke) out of thin air at a price we can afford.
After all the negativity and moaning of the the last few years it’s finally time to get behind the team. Up the arse
That’s just what we need- a defender who makes regular silly errors
But he scores some bangers too
So does Mustafi
You say that, but when was his last major blunder?
Luiz is an excellent defender. If people think he’s as calamitous as Mustafi, then they haven’t watched Luiz play, especially last season when he was a rock for Chelsea.
I can not wait to line up with a back four of AMN Luiz Mustafi and Kolasinac. This is why we watch the Arsenal!
That’s a potentially very imbalanced, pretty fucked backline. Put in simple terms .
Add Kocielny too
Actually – assuming he’s not after stupid wages – that could be a decent 2 season signing.
Just saying…………
Rugani, Upemecano, Umtiti, Luiz, Tierney? The next 24 hours are going to be interesting…
It will certainly be interesting if we can sign 4 of them bar luiz
Actually, Umtiti is on again, judging from today’s paper. Also, a bookmaker gives 1 in odds on him joining Arsenal:)
No thanks.
Get him on reasonable wages for 2 yrs, why not?
‘Reasonable wages’ for a Chelsea players means 100k or more.
Nah not Luiz for me.
He’s an upgrade on what we have at CB depth and would / should be enough to get us CL qualification which would immediately offset the expenditure…which at his age is not going to be anywhere near 100k/wk…also don’t forget he was actually decent last season under Sarri…
We spend 72 million on a winger yet fail to strenghten the one area where it was shown that we were really struggling last season.
We should have spent that money on De Ligt.
I don’t see us finishing anywhere this season, especially now that Koscelny has left.
Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding, Chambers are not good enough – simple as that…
One of the constant complaints last season was that Arsenal had no true wingers and it showed in the team’s play. I agree that defense desperately needs to be strengthened, but let’s not pretend there were other areas of need.
Why not wait with the moaning until tomorrow?
And then enjoy the season…or find something else to cheer about
Holding was doing a great job until the injury (would take him over Maguire any day of the week) and Sokratis is solid and a real work-horse (though a bit hot-headed at times). We are thin on the ground, but lets not start slating defenders that we do have that aren’t an embarrassment.
I watched Fulham a bit last year and Chambers was the stand-out presence in the defensive line, albeit playing DCM. He was awesome. Bulked up a lot too and I am looking forward to seeing him back in our colours.
Throughout his Arsenal career, I’ve not had a problem with Chambers. The odds have mostly not been in his favor. But majority fans (the masses) just throw you under the bus, just not good enough . No better example of A prophet isn’t respected in his own land than in football/sport fans and upcoming talent especially when his play is more of the calm type like in Chambers case
I think that’s the trouble, though. Chambers joined Fulham initially to play CB, but they didn’t feel comfortable with him there. Moving him to DM proved to be a smart decision as it worked to his strengths and made his weaknesses less of a problem.
So Calum Chambers was Fulham’s Player of the Year. Triff.
And this would be fine if we were using him as a DCM.
But we aren’t!
And this is the whole fucking point because Chambers is crap in central defence. He’s so crap I’d probably prefer Mustafi there on the basis that he actually has a good game once in a while.
Bigging up Chambers as a player is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but he doesn’t address our fundamental problems in defence. Fuck knows what Emery is thinking.
Dé Ligt wouldn’t want to come to us, be realistic, but we don’t need luiz. I’d rather we waited till Jan if this is the sort of signing we’re looking at. We will end up being stuck with him and mustafi for next 2-3 years. No tanx
I am not saying Luiz is the best answer but we cannot wait until January. We need enough decent centre backs to start the season.
Last year when Holding got injured we were stuck playing Mustafi. I’m not sure I could take that again!
“We should have spent that money on De Ligt”
This isn’t Football Manager.
We spend 72 million on a winger who could be a game changer for our club and still find people moaning about it !!
Also, De Ligt? Are you kidding me??
Lol no
Lolo No
Not sure this is a great move tbh. He’s a half decent CB, but far from great, and I’ve laughed at his cock ups in a Chelsea shirt as much as other fans laugh at Mustafi’s. But we do need a CB, and if this is the stop gap to Saliba coming in then fine.
Would still prefer me that lad from Leipzig though. Guy looks like the sort of investment we should be making back there.
Having said the above, it’s just struck me that we still have Mustafi on the books. Now swapping one for the other maybe, but imagine a back two of Luiz and Mustafi….
The stuff of real nightmares right there.
Luiz will partner Sokratis or Holding or Chambers. Mustafi is finished. He’ll play some Europa and domestic cup games, but that’s it.
Is this a fucking joke ?
This what happens when we spend all our money on attackers when defence should have been the first priority this summer … end up having to sign an ageing defender as a stop gap, because it worked so well last summer didn’t it …
I knew a Tony Hall once. He had a big bushy beard and a blue T-shirt. Not you is it?
Well I have a big bushy beard so it could be, who’s asking 🙂
Luiz should pair well with Guendouzi.
I blame Elneny. If he hadn’t cut his hair we wouldn’t be so imbalanced in that department.
Are they twins?
2 years? Yeah, what the hell? I mean, he’s better than mustafi, right?
Fantastic defender; would be a quality addition to our first 11.
I didn’t realise we needed another comical error prone centre back… shows what I know.
I wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of Rugani but I’d much rather have him than Luiz.
Based on what evidence? What do you know about Rugani? Luiz is PL proven.
Luiz and Mustafi – what a combo. Will strike fear into strikers – our own strikers unfortunately.
Best comments section ever
Yeah…I don’t think that’s the partnership envisioned by this signing. Seriously, why bother?
We should have gone the distance with Upamecano at any price, if we don’t have cash in hand then finance the move with debt. Highest ticket prices in the world ought to pay for it, and historically low interest rates wouldn’t bite either.
Basically, my point is, any money we put into players shouldn’t disappear with age, and we should be able to get what we put in if the player decides to move. Just like you don’t go buying houses you can’t sell, we should really avoid that with players, at all and any cost.
Valuable investment lesson
Mustafi and Sideshow Bob in the same line up..sends shivers down the spine, and not in a good way either!
No! No! No! No! No!
He too old and not good enough. He was never a natural defender and makes Mustafiesque mistakes every game. And he’s probably asking for stupid wages. We don’t need another rubbish player sucking huge money out of the club.
We should avoid him like the plague.
100% agree! Well said.
Seems like we’ll be only as successful as medieval Europe.
Well that’s come out of nowhere – looks like an agent has been at work.
There’s nothing in the report about terms. He’s just signed a two-year contract extension at Chelsea so he certainly won’t be arriving, if he arrives that is, on a free.
I doubt we’ll get Upamecano as he’d cost a fortune. Juve don’t want to loan out Rugani and we don’t appear to want to buy him. All in all, it sounds like a recipe for ending up with nobody to me!
Luiz was linked with us briefly last summer as well, but iirc Chelsea elected to hang onto him as they had about 80 players on loan.
How very Arsenal, replace Mustafi with someone who can out-Mustafi Skod!
I do hope this one is papertalk…….
If you seriously think Luiz is worse than Mustafi, then you haven’t watched Luiz play with any sort of regularity. Such claims as yours have emotional traction, but they are not based in reality.
I see two problems: 1) why would we want him? 2) why would chelsea sell him to us?
Perhaps their attempt to pip us to a higher place up the table?
I have seen it reported that Chelsea have deployed a series of rakes on the ground outside their training ground, as well as the player’s residence, to avoid him making any sort of move away during their transfer ban.
That all said, Luiz isn’t the worst option possible considering the lack of quality CBs available and the associated costs for PL proven defenders. However, he’s very much a short term solution to a long term problem that the majority of the executive team has known about since last summer.
You’re right, he is a ‘proven PL defender’. Proven to be absolutely shockingly bad. Perish the thought we’re forced to play him and Mustafi together!
The stats tell a different story to your narrative here- Luiz had stats equal to, or better than, the most expensive defender for the PL last season.
I agree. Its too easy to remember his bloopers but forget his strengths.
He might not be a great defender but he’s a better Mustafi than the Mustafi we have
Very clever ploy by Raul! I’m sure the message he’s sending is “if you thought Mustafi was bad, just wait until you see this!” Can’t we just get Igors Stepanovs and Gus Caesar back?
Pascal Cygan could probably put in a shift.
Where’s a Squillaci when you need one.
The height of absurdity when people are comparing Luiz to Squillaci, Stepanovs, etc. Please learn about football and then come back.
A back four of Kolasinac, Luiz, Mustafi and Maitland-Niles with Xhaka as a DM is a real possibility people
Just remembering what happened when we bought a past it defender from a “rival” … Silvestre.
Hmmmm, no thanks
Also Gallas…but then also Campbell
Maybe it works 1 out of every 3 times
Huge if true
If this means we’ll have enough money left over to sign Tierney, then I’m all for it.
Surely NOT signing Luiz would leave us with more money?
Yes, true – but then we wouldn’t have an experienced centre back, which we certainly do need (whether it’s Luiz that we need is another question of course).
I do hope this is just some scumbag agent chancing his arm.
For everyone saying he is past it and full of mistakes, Luiz made 50 appearances for Chelsea last year and the blues made an exemption with giving him a 2 year contract for an over 30’s player so they must see something.
Luiz in the last few years has cut out a lot of mistakes and been somewhat solid.
Definitely an improvement on what we have and compared to Rugani who would cost more and maybe not suited to PL would be a good signing!
I’d prefer Louis carrying the ball out of defence than Mustafi.
*Luiz
It feels like we would be doubling down on mustafi style crazyness
Is that possible …? Arrrrgh. Let’s hope not.
Transfer window has gone absolutely nuts!
Get both Luiz and a younger CB (Upamecano would be my choice). While I’m not fan of the guy, he still can cover for both CB and DM (and is quite good at free kicks). If we can get him on the cheap, I can’t see why not. We need some experience to blend with our youngsters
Do you really want the lessons Luiz would teach?
Not being natural doesn’t mean he’s not seasoned veteran successful at his art.
Don’t take me wrong, as I said, not a fan of Luiz, but as of right now we’re short of options (is either Rugani, Upamecano, Cahill or him it seems). If i had to choose between him and Cahill I’d honestly choose Cahill, but there’s a reason why Chelsea offered a new deal and why he has played for both PSG and Chelsea. He can be error prone, but other than Van Dijk pretty much every defender can make a mistake out of the blues. The main reason why I wouldn’t be too against of him is because he can… Read more »
Cahill is more error-prone than Luiz. I’m surprised you’d take him over the Brazilian.
he’s certainly better than Gary Cahill and definitely better than Mustafi
Mustafi and Luiz. I’m not against it. A painful season at the Emirates for opposing forwards
Refs would be suing for repetitive strain injuries for cards
If you seriously believe that the signing of Luiz is designed to complement Mustafi, then you really don’t have much credibility here.
I thought they were under a transfer ban? Or is that only incoming?
In any case, pass. He’s not bad, but getting up there, and not a big upgrade on Mustafi.
Only banned from registering new players.
Hence why they sold Hazard without any issues.
They could have technically made a Saliba style signing, and wait until January or next Summer to register him.
I think that’s what Barca did during they ban when they signed Arda Turan.
We were meant to be improving our defence yet all we seem to be doing now is replacing our captain with someone not as good as him 🙁
Raul and his agent amigos are really stirring the shit, eh! This is bonkers, and I think I might like it. He’s experienced, has great technique. . . I’m a bit concerned because I thought he played best in a back three . . . but he is an upgrade at one of our weak spots. How much could he cost at 32? And does he just not want to play for Frank L. or for a team through a downturn? Does this mean Arsenal are on the up? Crazy as his hair.
Does anyone know how he played under an Emery system at PSG?
He can fuck right off cos we already have the best fro in the league. Mind you, hair aside, he’s still better than any defender we’ve got currently and is a bit nasty when need be which we could do with. 5 on the poo chart for me but wouldn’t mind it really if he costs fuck all and plays for peanuts.
So we could have had Cahill on a free, or pay what 5/10m for Luiz. What would you have preferred… Also assume the 1 year contract for over 30s is no longer club policy. None of the CB we have been linked with are really the perfect solution, so maybe make do until one comes in. The leipzig guy is only 20 and expecting him to solve ours defensive issues is like expecting jesus to return (and they want Smith Rowe in the deal). The guy from Juve isn’t first choice and they’ve bought another defender, so is he that… Read more »
We have Saliba coming in.
…and they said Arsenal cannot attract great players….pfffttt.
Meh. What we need is a LB. More CBs (especially non-elite) is just and excuse to play 5 at the back, bland, unexciting Emery cutback football!
*an