According to Cadena Ser, Valencia have made Gabriel one of their priorities as they look to strengthen their defence for next season.
The La Liga side are currently managed by Marcelino, who was the Brazilian’s manager at Villarreal, so he knows him well and it is this relationship in particular which has made the Arsenal man a target.
Of course there are complications. Gabriel is currently injured with a knee problem that is going to keep him out until August. There’s also the fact that if Arsenal stick with a back three, they need to ensure they have enough depth at centre-half to cope throughout the season.
And then there’s the financial element. Valencia have had ongoing issues with cashflow, although the £35m they got from the Gunners last August for Shkodran Mustafi, as well as other sales, might have left them with some room for manoeuvre.
As ever, stuff at this stage of the summer tends to be quite speculative, and we’ll give this one a middling 6 poos*.
For those unfamiliar: our Poo-o-Meter rates transfer rumours from 1 poo to 10, where 1 is solid, 10 is liquid nonsense.
We’ll also be re-introducing our poo ratings system this week so you can get in on all that lovely transfer poo action.
I suspect almost every player in our squad will be linked with a move away this summer. It’s gonna be funnnnnnnnnnn.
The opposite, it is a (close to) total waste of time. Best to only look at trusted websites like this (especially if a low poo rating), arsenal.com and the BBC. Otherwise you’ll see so much rubbish generated by dodgy websites for clicks.
Enjoy the summer and come back later in the break to see what actually happened.
I have stopped trusting everything ever since Jamie Vardy was featured on BBC, Sky, and even Arseblog and finally nothing came of it.
It was real. No one expected him to turn us down.
I thought the “funnnnn” was sarcastic?
I think we’d be alright with Kos, Mert, Mustafi, Chambers, Holding, and Monreal as options for a back three. Gabriel is really good but we have the numbers.
We are looking a bit overstocked when chambers comes back and Gabriel is not the youngest
Gabriel is 27 in November. So while your statement about him “not being the youngest” is of itself true, we could not replace him with a 4 year old, who would indeed be the youngest. I assume you thought that he was older, as 27 is usually taken to be the age when a centre half comes into their prime.
Thought he was 29 for some reason
Monreal is a left back and should play as that. I think we can have those five + Gabriel and this will allow enough shifting.
Chambers can provide backup for both RB & CB and we have 2 in reserve to rotate apart from the 3 that start.
Only problem in this marvellous plan? Injuries if they strike.
Let’s say our main defense are : Kos, Mustafi, and Holding.
The back up : Mertesacker, Gabriel, Monreal, assuming Chambers will be on loan again.
Looks decent, as long as Kos, Mustafi, and Mer didn’t absence at the same time.
Don’t forget Krystian Bielik, looks a good prospect, plays out from the back too!
I was gonna say Bielik as well. I think we’d be fine without Gabriel, who is prone to mistakes as often as he looks a world-beater. I also think we’re looking for a new CB this summer.
Pretty sure Gibbs will leave so we need Nacho as one of our left wing backs. He will fight for that place with the Schalke guy.
So then we have 6 players for 3 positions as Centre back. That’s the minimum needed if we stick to that system.
Gibbs has been leaving the Arsenal for about 5 years now… he’s not very good at leaving. Get him to pass on his technique to Ozil and Sanchez
It will be interesting to see what happens in this area over the summer. If you assume we stick with the new 3 at the back system and we want to rotate heavily for Europa League then the numbers are about right.. if he starts letting a few go it could be a sign that we’ll revert back to the traditional back 4.
Would be quite happy to see Gabriel go, on the basis that we have Chambers coming back & we purchase a quality replacement.
I think his fate was sealed in the NLD against Spurs, he gave that penalty away and Wenger shouted ‘he does it every time’.
Gabriel isn’t good enough so no reason not to let him go.
Spot on . up until this point wenger always gave preference to Gabriel. But after that match holding was the clear winner amoungst the two.
I’m fairly sure AW was talking about Kane and his love of manufacturing penalties.
Exactly, yelling that at the player whilst mid game wont improve his performance. It was clearly indicating Kane was looking for the penalty as he often does.
Gabriel reminds me completely of the younger Koscielny. He did all of these things too when he came to us. Stupid penalties, stupid red cards (he still has than in him from time to time as we know since Everton), bad concentration level. But he became one of the best in the PL. Still think Gabriel has everything needed to be a top class Centre back.
Berlingoon preaching some wisdom, context and reference.
Besides … if we got rid of everyone on our current squad who made dumb mistakes, was prone to injury, and / or had a long, disappointing stretch this season, who would we have left?
But Holding looks like a young version of the current Koscielny… More importantly, there needs to be a real partnership, and Holding certainly seems to be finding it easier to match the other Centerbacks. Gabriel’s come a long way however, and his physicality is definitely leaps and bounds above Holding’s too.
Gabriel and Holding are the 2 backs who have taken it to Costa too. Costa bullies our other defenders, but Gabriel particularly loves the challenge of a physical forward like Costa.
It gives me a headache just thinking about having to play transfer rumour roulette again. Gabriel is decent enough, but not a starter for me. Still, I’d rather he stayed just for one less thing to have to deal with this summer!
Gabriel is the exact type of player an ambitious club would look to move on in order to bring in better, as such i expect him to stay and for Sanchez to leave.
Sky tweets we have agreed fee for Henry Onyekuru from Belgian club Eupen
Don’t understand the hate/criticism levelled at Gabriel at times. He is a very good centre back who has made a few mistakes. The way some of you fans expect all players to hit the ground running is astonishing. Koscielny got a red card in his first game for us. Look at him now.
Gabriel has been with us 2 & a half seasons and he hasn’t proved himself to be a very good centre back imo in that time. Not even close.
I think we need to cut our losses & move him on. Good luck to him wherever he goes. Is that ‘hate’ in your book?
Similar to your first sentence, I don’t understand the undue praise thrown at some of our players at times.
Oh that last one’s very easy to understand. We are supporters, it comes with the title.
People don’t get that nowadays. I had an argument with a guy yesterday who wanted to tell me DT is a true supporter because he is only singing at the Emirates when we’re winning. I think people see it as a weakness when you support your team after bad performances or disappointing results. But that’s what makes a good supporter. This is not politics. Fans aren’t responsible for the direction the club moves. They’re there to support the team. If you can’t do it because you’re so annoyed of this club, just stay at home.
You seem to be confusing supporting the players in the stadium and their opinions on their quality. I will absolutely support Gabriel (or any other player) when he plays. You think I’m less of a supporter because I don’t think he’s good enough ? Nonsense.
Nope, I don’t. But all this online moaning leads to the atmosphere in the stadium that we have. If you read comments all the day about how shit a player is, you’re faster in slagging him off during the game. There are enough examples of that in the recent past. Bellerin, Iwobi, Ramsey, Giroud etc. All of them were criticizes online at first and then have been victims of abuse during the games.
And the critics of Arsenal act like it’s some kind of obsession. If they haven’t anything to moan about it wasn’t a good day.
good squad player, even with two centre-halves playing, andno need to get rid. 7-8 poos.
If chambers is back, then I’m all for this. Never been convinced by Gabi, and in any case chambo is the better prospect
6 CB’s is more than enough (2 per position).
I like Gabriel. He can be a bit reckless at times but he has looked pretty good in the back 3. All of them have added security to be more aggressive. Mustafi should also prosper.
I’d rather invest time into Chambers, so hopefully we’ll flog him
While it turned out alright in the end, I was nervous in the days running up to the final because we had no depth. Even with Chambers returning from loan, I would not want to see Gabriel leave without a replacement coming in
Always a big fan of your Poo meter ever since Mr Blog. 🙂
I don’t think you should count Nacho as 1 of the 6, despite his great performances there he should be fighting it out with Kolasanac on the left flank.
Which still leaves:
Kosh – Mustafi – Mertesacker
Holding – Gabriel – Chambers
I don’t know what Gabriel cost us but we should keep him espically as we will be playing league and Crap cup on a Thursday night we need lots of players and also we will end up with injuries.
Gabriel would do well playing in the Thursday night games.
Get Gaya/Lato send him there in part exchange! We need a better left sided CB and we have Chambers, Holding, Per for depth…
We should bring back Bacary Sagna for defensive cover. He was doing a great job as a center-back before he left. That’s how I thought he would end his career. I bet he and his wife is beautiful would like to be back in London.
Given Gabriel’s injury, it’s hard to see a club paying much for him. It might make more sense to keep him. He’s performed well in the later half of the season – especially in the back three formation – and if we’re going to tale the Europa competition seriously (as Stan implies we are) then we need the depth. Plus, I think every decent football team needs at least one Brazilian!
I think we will stick with a back 3, and because of that i dont think any of our senior centre-halfs are for sale, because they have all been quite brilliant in this system.