According to the Evening Standard, three clubs are interested in signing Cedric Soares with Fulham currently looking like the favourites to secure the defender’s signature in January.
Having featured heavily last season – predominantly as cover for Takehiro Tomiyasu – the Portugal international has been reduced to a bit-part role this time as a result of Ben White’s deployment at right-back. To date, Cedric has made only four appearances for a total of 119 minutes.
At 31, he’s understandably keen to get back to regular football and agent Kia Joorabchian is putting out the feelers.
A move to West London would be convenient, especially as Cedric has experience working with coach Marco Silva earlier in his career at Sporting Lisbon. Still, continental interest from Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen isn’t to be sniffed at.
Simon Collings claims that Arsenal are open to either a six-month loan with an option to buy or a permanent departure. Neither scenario is likely to see the Gunners recoup much cash on a player who joined on loan from Southampton before completing a permanent move as a free agent in the summer of July 2020.
Arsenal aren’t expected to see many outgoings in January. If the club recruits a winger, it’s possible they will sanction a loan move for Marquinhos but otherwise, the focus will be on reshuffling the pack at the academy level.
Can’t complain
Honestly I think it’s worth keeping him till end of the season. If White gets injured then you have to hope Tomi can stay fit and although I love Tomi, we have seen a number of injury problems. For a title charge, it’s worth keeping for a low transfer fee.
In addition to that, Ben White is considered one of our main centre backs, when you consider he is much better there (with Takehiro at RB) than simply dropping Holding in…. much as I love the guy.
Obviously, that’s dependent on an unfortunate injury to one of our two titans there at the moment, but without Cedric we’re one injury away from potentially having both our RBs on the field at the same time.
50 million minimum
Mustn’t grumble
Won’t worry
Will be fine
Good news if it happens, I think. Apart from trimming the squad to allow others to come through we need to at least try and raise some funds from player sales. It’s almost all been “money out” so far – a lot more with a probable Mudryk signing looming. So it would be good if we could sell a few peripheral players, perhaps even Pepe for whom we’re still paying off the exorbitant transfer fee – and he doesn’t even play for us.
And why do you think we haven’t done well with the outgoings? Do you think it might have anything to do with the players being crap?
Business involves profit and loss, but we are just learning to reduce our losses.
No gripes
Cedric wasn’t that exceptional but he wasn’t shit either. For a player we got for free, he served us well. I wish him the best in his future endeavors. Once a gunner, always a ………
Define free 🤔
If Cedric is your weakest player and he is also your regular right back, you can still challenge for top four–but I don’t think you can win the league. If Ben White *or* Tomiyasu is your right back, you can (not will, can) win the league, and that’s the distance Arsenal have come. By the way, who is Arsenal’s weak link now? I suppose Eddie with Gabriel Jesus’ absence, but who would you name otherwise? Just as I can’t decide our best player (Saka, I guess, but Odegaard, Partey, Martinelli, White, Saliba–almost everyone–has a claim), the fact that I can’t… Read more »
Cedric’s biggest flaw isn’t his limitations as a player, it’s his cunt agent.
Great for Cedric
Decent player that in the short term helped us shift the overpaid, lazy and entitled squad and transition into the vastly superior one we have now.
Cedric may never have been the right back we all wanted but was probably the one we needed, essentially the Unai Emery of full backs.