According to Brazilian outlet Globe Esporte, Arsenal are negotiating with Flamengo over central defender Pablo Mari.
The 26 year old only joined the Rio de Janeiro based side last year, having taken a circuitous route to South America.
The Spaniard began his career with Real Mallorca, before establishing himself with Gimnastic. He then moved to Man City but never played a game for them. Loan spells at NAC Breda and Girona followed, as well as a season at Deportivo la Coruna.
In July of last year he joined Flamengo for around £1m. With Edu as a our Technical Director, the Brazil link makes sense, but he’ll also be well known to manager Mikel Arteta who was at City when he signed in 2016.
The 6’3 defender recently featured for Flamengo in the FIFA Club World Cup Final against Liverpool in Qatar.
The Arsenal boss spoke earlier today about transfers, playing his cards close to his chest, but he did admit the centre of defence was an area that could use some reinforcement.
“We’ve been looking at different positions,” he said.
“Since I joined we lost Calum and we had circumstances and injuries in those positions, so it’s true that at the back we have been short.
“At the moment I am 50/50 because this window is complicated. I only want to bring someone in if I am really convinced he can improve the level that we have.”
The report claims that there is a good chance the deal will go through, and given that it’s likely to be relatively cheap, it’d make some sense.
Let’s see what happens. The transfer window closes next Friday.
It would appear we have a type…
I prefer mykola matviyenko.. He’s fast and aggressive. This dude is slow. He reads the game well but he looks like the Brazilian Mertesacker. And honestly I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing. But his turning radius and his pace is not good. But his reading and tackling and height are his assets.
https://youtu.be/U83ERS27yIg
From this video, add Shooting, distribution and ability to beat a man on the ball (which my boss likes). Plus this height instantly ‘improves’ us; it’s like trying to build a complete army with poor airforce. He won’t be exposed in Mikels units. Long legs are a different type of pace, and they keep going. Shorter legs are more famed for bursts
A Mertesacker replacement is *exactly* what we’ve needed for four years now.
Why would you keep stocking up on aggro defenders who can’t be partnered with each other? Part of the reason Mustafi/Luiz/Sokratis looks so bad (and Koscielny looked world class) is because of the lack/presence of Mertesacker.
It’s why I don’t understand this Upamecano obsession. This rumour/news at least makes me (want to) believe that we have some real “football people” leading transfer policy. Doesn’t guarantee he’ll be good, mind.
Unfortunately mustafi looks bad because he switches off or does something stupid in practically every game
Koscielny didn’t just look world class…at his best, he was world class.
Pablo Mari just flew into London with Edu, and he said he is excited to be joining Arsenal, I think medicals is just what is remaining.
He’s Spanish
He’s Spanish
I think he’ spanish…
Matviyenko was also my preference. He is going to be a star. I know that most fans want Upamecano but I hate to break it to you, he will be playing for Bayern next season
?????
Do you have a licence to use those poos?
“I only want to bring someone in if I am really convinced he can improve the level that we have.”
Pretty much anybody and everybody is on the radar then.
Not Mustafi you say?
It’s an upgrade
A training ground dummy wearing a false beard and an Arsenal shirt would be an upgrade on Mustafi…..
Circumstances = Mustafi
Shut the fucking fuck with the mustafi bithcing. Helps noone.
Fun at parties this one, eh?
The sensitivity that these numpties display when anyone questions their idol. The fact that he’s costing us points, game in game out, is conveniently overlooked…..
Mustafi is no one’s idol. It just doesn’t help to keep on vilifying someone who has zero confidence. If you are constantly told you’re going to fuck up you start believing it yourself and then, surprise surprise, you fuck up constantly. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Everyone knows he’s not good enough but it’s the club’s fault that he wasn’t sold when he actually had a resale value and his reputation wasn’t utterly in the toilet. Now we’re stuck with him until his contract expires so while we have to have him in the team maybe it’s a good idea… Read more »
He wasn’t good when he had all the support merlin, we all wanted him to succeed, and he got a lot of opportunities, too much really and now it’s just time to move on. It’s certainly not on the people who made their mind up on him to call on and see as bad supporters, how arrogant a person can be to say that?
Merlin. Fine, you and your fellow Musties keep applauding his mistakes. The rest of us, those of us who know that blind allegiance to bad players has actually got nothing to do with whether you’re s ‘true supporter’ or not, will continue to look at the bigger picture – namely the Premiership table and where we are, largely thanks to the ineptitude of your idol.
You clearly have an agenda as you keep putting words in my mouth. As I said before I’m not a fan of Mustafi. I just don’t think it’s all his fault he’s not good enough. I understand where the frustration comes from with him but constantly pushing it towards him will only make it worse so by carrying on like you do you’re part of the problem. Not that you’ll admit it.
Literally so tired of it. Its the clubs fault tho they should have moved him on time ago.
? Mustafi lovers. Hilarious. The gift that keeps on giving.
Did Mustafi fuck your wife or something? You’re totally obsessed by him.
No, but I’m willing to bet your missus is getting sick and tired of the amount of Mustafi posters that you’re blue tacking around the home – not to mention the shrine you’ve set up for him in the downstairs toilet.
She quite likes them actually. However, the window licker outside ranting about Mustafi whilst steaming up our windows is wearing thin on her. I’ve stopped her from calling the police as I’ve explained it’s only harmless Qwalitee with his eternal Mustafi hang up.
https://youtu.be/THIHIY5w3TY
Well, in spite of you resorting to name calling – I’ll leave you with a parting gift. A little something for you and the wife. Enjoy!
I’m not going to watch that but I know it’ll ooze class as it’s from you.
When Mustafa joins his next club you should follow him so you can reveal to their fans all the obvious shit you’ve told us about him. No doubt they’ll be lapping up your in-depth knowledge.
You’re not going to watch it. My, my, there’s a surprise. Truth hurts does it Twats? Your idol in glorious HD and you can’t watch it. I wonder why. ?
KongoKim. There you go. Treat yourself. https://youtu.be/THIHIY5w3TY
Anyone but Mustafi and Luiz!
Luiz has improved under Arteta. Mustafi just does what he does – Mustafis all over the place.
Smoke and mirrors
Cloaks and daggers
Really?We had Paulista before and he was booted out.The board must
be realistic. The days of winning the epl on the cheap are over.
Furthermore Arsenal go into the cl without a realistic chance of winning but
to fill the coffers.
Arsenal are a million miles from challenging the likes of Pool and MC and are being overtaken by SU and Wolves. Already Spurs and Chelsea are in front.
i gather you’d post similar drivel under article about us chasing Gabi not so long ago..
also, fuck off thinking spuds are in front. they could have been, but they blew the chance.
It was reported more than once that Gabriel had some difficulty settling in and with a language barrier. Otherwise I thought he could have been a solid 2nd line choice for us, maybe even more once adapting. He had the athleticism, tenacity, and decent focus.
With Gabriel the issue was there would be one really hairy moment in every game. An horrendous mis-kick , a mad lunge or just someone getting under his skin (Diego Costa springs to mind). But for the most part he looked like a good back up to Koscielny.
Why so many dislike? We have to stop spending money on these mediocre players. We will end up with a bunch of Mustafis on our squad on around 100k which we can’t shift. Don’t we learn from the past few years that these kind of transfers are actually the worst kind? You either spend big or don’t spend at all. The worst is to spend just the amount to make yourself feel like you’ve solved a problem but actually you are not, you are just filling your squad with second tier players and you know what, you become a second… Read more »
Hey Hommie HYL, the price the world has put on you is not your final position in life. I’m happy to announce to you that you can move on and be better. You may win the Champions league even, you know like Henderson or like Wijnaldum and Robertson from relegation to best team
Good motivational speech, but stat and history don’t lie. How many 7.5m defender who never played a top tier game in Europe, came from Brazil and flourished in the PL? I can name you plenty who don’t make it tho. Yes maybe he has small chance to be a bit hit, but the reason that he’s only worth 7.5m is because chances are, he won’t. Not trying to be negative, it’s just being objective and having a reality check.
Well in the absence of the availability of the targets we want due to it being January, surely you can be optimistic about a potentially first team player signing for what today is peanuts to at least cover the defence, perhaps offering even more. It’s nonsense to say spend big or not spend at all, spending should always be wise. That could be N’Golo Kante or Virgil Van Dijk. As for centre backs from the Brazilian leagues, most of them go to other European countries where it’s easier to get a work permit – there haven’t been many in the… Read more »
Lucio was an absolute beast of a CB! He came to Highbury in 2005 with that Bayern Munich team of Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack and we beat them 1-0 but went out on aggregate.
If I could clone a Brazilian defender for us, he’d be the one. Tall, fast, ruthless and elite at sh*thousing
Not all Liverpool buys are expensive….. Salah and Mane weren’t expensive. Its not just spending big for the sake of it. You need people with solid football knowledge and buying the right players doesn’t always mean spending big and spending big doesn’t always mean the player will come good. By the way… Mustafi wasn’t cheap when we bought him for 35M pounds
No problem with your overall point but Mustafi, Mane and Salah cost about the same amount – it was 34m pounds each for the Liverpool forwards.
That’s also what we paid Barca for Alexis Sanchez, it was a huge amount of money at that time
The Sanchez money was decent money at the time but prices so quickly spiraled that 35m for Salah or mane 2-3 years ago wasn’t huge. Keep in mind they sold coutinho for 140m a year or so later. Mustafi at 35m was one of the most expensive defenders in the world at the time.
It’s funny how certain fans who don’t even support Liverpool are so invested in this dumb narrative about Liverpool build their superteam on the cheap.
Again, someone said Mustafi wasn’t cheap at 35m pounds but Mane and Salah weren’t expensive. They cost the same bloody amount lol. We need less Liverpool propaganda on this forum please
and ironically, which Premier League club has paid the most out to agents for related transfers over the last two seasons? LIVERPOOL!
Carry on with the propaganda though
@ Kaius. I don’t care about Liverpool but you have to adjust for inflation and position. Mustafi was one of the top 5 most expensive defenders ever when he was bought. Prices just exploded at that point – 35 m for Salah in a period when courinho is going for 140m is cheap.
@atom Sorry you have it all wrong Salah and mane were were bought at going rate at the time. I’m not saying they weren’t good buys but Liverpool paid what was the norm. Only reason they look like great buys is because neymar was sold later on in the summer for his ridiculous amount that inflated everyone’s value afterwards. If neymar was sold before mane and salah were bought their prices would have definitely increased. That’s why couthino was valued so high in the Jan window because Barca had all this stupid mi yes to spend and needed to show… Read more »
@ Cali gunner.
I’m not wrong on this. Mustafi was extremely expensive at the time. Salah and mane we’re going rate for players of their caliber at the time they were bought. They easily outperformed expectations. However 35m on Sanchez is not remotely the same as 35 m on Salah as prices exploded.
The 35 m on Mustafi was one of the highest fees ever paid for a defender by anyone ever and needs to be viewed in that light. Prices are relative.
@atom
Yes mustafi was expensive by 5-10m but you also have to remember he was bought towards the end of the summer. I don’t even think he was going to be bought until the injuries happened. First it was bfg in the early preseason than right before the season started I believe Gabriel got hurt.
Sanchez price was good for an elite player. He just couldn’t get into the lineup there because Barca were loaded with attackers we actually got a good deal on him
Wenger dithered in the transfer market and as a result ended up routinely getting fleeced the last few years of his tenure here. Perez, Mustafi, Xhaka. Even bidding 90m for Lemar who went to athletico for 60m.
You can still spend big and it go horribly wrong. We have spent big in recent years and some of those signings really haven’t gone well. It’s not about how much you spend, it’s about the quality you can spot.
You can, for example, spend 35 million on Mustafi. Eh, Arsene??
To be fair he looked like a great signing. An established German international in their World Cup winning squad. Started well and has a good central defensive partnership with Koscielny and has a great run of undefeated matches. Of course he regressed and it didn’t work out but you can hardly blame Wenger .
Report says good positioning and vision but slow. Would be useful if he was as good as our retired BFG and we pair him up with a quick center back.
Attackers will fall over mesmerized by his gorgeous face!
I bet people will scroll up again after reading this comment to take a look at his face. I did…
$MeToo
Gervinho, are you saying that most or all attacking players in the EPL are in the closet gays or bis?
For all January is a hard time to do business, for Brazilian clubs it makes perfect sense as it’s their summer transfer window. Can see why we would be doing our shopping there this January, especially with edu
Based on his YouTube clips I’d rather keep Mustafi
Nurse will be along with your medication in five minutes. Sit tight.
I support Flamengo and i know that Pablo Marí is a good cb ,
Um brazilian, Im a flamengo’s fan, he have a amazing usar, but he is’nt the best CB of the team, he’s a really good player in brazilians level but he is slow to the Premier League.
At 26 and 6’3″, sounds interesting to me. Sokratis and Mustafi will be gone by next season, and Luis the following. So we’d probably have him along with Chambers, Holding and Saliba for the immediate future.
Not too bad, if you ask me
Too slow
Sokratis is fast, tackles well and has good positional awareness. He is the last player we should sell now.
Isn’t he out of contract in the summer?
I think I read at the start of the year where he plans this season to be his last in Europe in order to move to the MLS. Or maybe next season, I’m not sure
I agree though, underrated defender, does not deserve to be lumped in to the Mustafi bracket.
But how tall is he? Is he taller than Chris Samba?
Matviyenko is more versatile. Can cover lcb and cb,and some say cdm.
Have watched him play?
Not good enough for Man City, passed around, Spaniard but can’t make it in Spain.
World beater.
Drag.
You were calling Sokratis pastsellbydatepoulos, you were convinced he was slow. Now you call him our best defender.
You run unending agendas about players you want and put down anyone who’s linked with us just because they’re not on your little list.
The lack of self reflection in you is appalling.
He’s been a key player in a double-winning Flamengo side that was lauded as the best South American team in years, left-footed, right age, good price : shrewd signing. If things don’t work out and he doesn’t adapt or picks up bad habits from his colleagues we haven’t lost that much of an investment.
Should have signed Johnny Evans for £3m when he was available.
Yeah, with hindsight, so should every PL club except Liverpool
At the time he just looked like more mid/late career mid table standard high wage squad filler – the last thing we needed
The real mistakes are the players who were on our radar and we know to be good, but we let pass over a couple of million or inertia
Johnny Evans. We’re Arsenal, not Harlow Town.
To be honest I don’t know anything about most of the players we’re being linked to. We have an awesome new manager now and I just hope the club will back him with top talent and not let Sanllehi buy rubbish off his mates. Hopefully this would be a really shrewd signing and not a payday for a friend. I don’t have any expectations for this transfer window but it would be good if we could at least bring in one good player.
Eh? Who did Raul sign that was a “payday for a friend”?
These anti-Raul narratives are the worst. Wolves’ entire team is agent-made but (surprise surprise!) it’s bloody Arsenal fans who do the most bitching about agents
Well he is currently on a flight to London with Edu, so pretty good odds he is coming to sign a contract.
The confusing part is that City sold him for 1 million in the summer and we are buying him for 7.5m. that is one hell of an improvement in 6 months. I assume that Arteta knows something about him, despite him never playing at all for City during his three years on their books..
7.5m seems a lot to be honest.
How do you know he’s currently on a flight with Edu? Excellent research if true!
https://mobile.twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1221047945702838272?s=21
Slightly off topic. Has anyone watched coquelin play for Valencia, apparently he’s doing pretty well for them.
I feel like Torriera has become that DM we were crying out for but he doesn’t always have the legs to carry out what’s asked of him every game. Coquelin would be a good cover and he is no nonsense. I thought he was insane when he played alongside Cazorla. What are others thoughts?.
He would be a great backup for Torreira (which we need) but the problem is he wants to play regularly.
Bring them both back for one last Coqzorla hurrah
I always liked Coquelin. I think because he went out on loan, owned it, got his chance in the first team and took it. Him and Cazorla just worked. He would win the ball back and give it to the maestro.
I have seen him once or twice. He starts for them when fit. Looks okay, seems like a leader. Gabriel plays regularly for them too, looks the same as for us–aggressive, great spirit, makes errors, not calm.
Anything is better than mustafi
Anyone but Mustafi.
Never heard of him
…but he’s gorgeous, so make it happen!
Is he any good?
Who cares! Mikel’s idea is for us to keep the ball as much as possible and play in the opponent’s half….we won’t even need defenders soon when we get our act together…I would like to add I haven’t been drinking, but having read some of the comments on here I need one.
He’s a defender and we need defenders!
This is great news – Tim Vickery on the World Football Phone-In a few weeks ago was raving about him – and he is usually spot on in his assessment. This could be exactly what we need – very excited and hoping they get it done.
I have just seen a video of him and Edu at a UK airport and he says he is excited to be signing for Arsenal. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/thearsenaledition/?__tn__=%2CdkCH-R-R&eid=ARCCX8BQRDFgx4f066FN19UdP-U5gr2-swgY7s2h-7qqahH4AEZad4pZLP9ioXzohoYPuTlzgL4D0zHv&hc_ref=ARSK24hpSVM_c3gRTlS6g7nnM70J7hPtxYK2eAU8W4AVCcYyeQkg7sDUyQFXBR-nb-c&fref=nf&hc_location=group
Lord give me strength
If it happens fingers crossed he’s not another dud.
It is happening see my post above.
Just saw the video of him at the airport….like the fact Edu came to pick him up not gonna lie
I think he may be one for next year as much as anything. He is a 6’3 left sided cb to pair with Saliba, a 6’4 right sided cb. It appears their styles will mesh well based on highlights with his calm as a counterpoint to Saliba’s more athletic style. Both are comfortable spraying balls up to the wings to start attacks or playing it out as the situation requires. Plus that gives us a lot of height in the back. I love it.
So with them in the middle, Tierney on the left and Hector/AMN on the right that’s our defense sorted. Now for the midfield….
Shit, these are my first two posts here. Didn’t mean to upvote myself.
Someone should talk to the bloggies about footbal players. Shocking stat – they all have agents. Amazing how it turned into low quality narrative about agents now. Oh, what an unexpected thing, this one has agent aswell! I knew we were in the bed with them. Wenger always went to the grandma and grandpa when he wanted to get a player! Is it really something you genuinely find normal to look up player and who he is represented and then be shocked and write full article about it? Doesn’t it make you feel really, really stupid when you find out… Read more »
I don’t think it’s against agents per se, rather that we are hoping that they’re not a clique. This player seems to look the part and hopefully he’s an excellent signing for us. I don’t think anyone would want to go back to Wenger dithering and then panic buying, that was awful.
“Wenger always went to the grandma and grandpa when he wanted to get a player!”
very funny comment Cmdn.
Something tells me that at least he’ll be not worse than Stones 🙂