The father of Sokratis Papastathopoulos has reportedly told a Greek radio station that a deal to bring his son to North London is close to being completed.
The 29 year old central defender has been linked with the club for some weeks now, and it appears as if agreement on all sides is done and the player will become Unai Emery’s first official recruit since becoming head coach last month.
Speaking to local media, Charalambos Papastathopoulos, said, “He is happy, he is in England at the moment, and tomorrow everything will be done.
“The English league is the highest in the world, the most competitive, and I believe he will do well.”
Papastathopoulos will sign a three year deal with an option for another year, as he hooks up again with former Borussia Dortmund teammates Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
His experience could well be useful for a defence that needs an injection of that quality, but Arsenal fans will be hoping that stories linking us with a free transfer move for Marouane Fellaini are wide of the mark as the midfield needs a lot more than the Belgian can provide.
Isn’t the afro-ed tit the kind of player we need in midfield?
Too right! We’ve long wanted to see a player fellate the opposition.
I don’t think that word means what you think it means. I for sure as hell don’t want to see that.
Are you guys actually getting excited about this signing? Another past it player who isn’t even a DM but rather a tree? At some point we will need to dig into our money reserves and get the top player we can get!
About what signing? Wait. You actually believe that the Fellatio rumors are real?
Well he’s aggressive and a no nonsense player, I can only hope last season was a blip as he was terrible for Dortmund.
Not inspired one iota about Fellaini, don’t mind the aggressive side to him, but I just think he’s bloody rubbish.
Last years blip is a worry. Can’t help but feel of experienced head is required we’ve been better reviving interest in Evans given he’s knowledge of premier league. But I guess he doesn’t fit Sven’s plan to turn writing out the Arsenal team sheet into some kind of spelling bee.
Dortmund as a whole was bad last season. You won’t find a better CB in the world with Papastathopoulos pedigree for 16m. Don’t forget our limited budget so we are saving money as well. Mustafi costed more than twice and Papastathopoulos will be better…
“knowledge of the premier league”
Only a handful of the initiated know of the mystical ways of the premier League.
Well played. The spelling bee bit left me in stitches.
Well, as long as it ain’t Fellaini!
Well then Sven, yo ghurt your man.
Cuz he’s Greek? Not very Homeros
You need to get yourself a sense of hummus.
Makes sense with Koscielny injured, we do look a bit heavy in this area though, low on quality but highest on numbers.
Koscielny, Mustafi, Chambers, Holding, Mavropanos, Sokratis
koscielny(33) and will be coming back from a serious injury , chambers still young , holding unfulfilled potential, mavrapanos very young and dont even get me started on mustafi. sokratis would be perfect leader for this arsenal side, one with character and experience. but i think we would still need offload mustafi and buy one more defender. That caglar soyun…something from budesliga looks too damn good. young , full of potential but unlike mavrapanos has a few seasons to back it up and very rugged . perfect for premier league . sokratis , mavrapanos/caglar , one of chambers holding bielk… Read more »
Seconded.
The backroom team needs another year to scope and buy.
This season is about becoming steady. building with easily replaceable depth next Summer. Cheap, experienced, expendable depth.
Get Mustafi as far from our young CBs as possible.
jw1
I think Chambers has developed a lot in the last couple of seasons – borderline starting XI quality and vastly underrated. People seem to clump him and Holding together when judging their development, but Chambers is streets ahead. Holding has stalled and needs a loan, like Chambers a couple of years ago basically. Mavropanos looks talented but it’s too much of a risk for him to go into the new season higher than 4th choice CB. Mustafi should be sold in part because he would probably bring in the highest transfer fee (the other part is he’s been shit). Koscielny,… Read more »
I hope we’re saving the money to buy a world replacement for Jack.
No i don’t mean Fellaini.
What about Renato Sanches. He is career is a bit stalled and we can refresh his career and he can power up our midfield. Win win. Sven utilize your network.
Not the worst idea in the world.
Similar type of player to Jack. He’d have a better platform to perform here than at Swansea, where he was basically expected to be the main driving force of a team that was totally useless individually and collectively, at 20, in a new country. Floundering there was understandable given the context.
There is definitely talent there, but not sure what his attitude is like.
Ruben Neves would be my choice. Not usually keen on championship signings as you never know how they’ll transfer their form but I think this guy is going to be seriously, seriously special.
I would agree, apart from the facts that he’s already said he’s staying at Wolves and his agent is a git.
You mean world replacement for cazorla.fellaini is a big upgrade on jack tbh
are you ok…?
i would love for us to get martial. those are the kind of players like salah ,increadibly talented but thrown under the bus by mourinho for reasons that only he knows. right now he’s not performing because he has lost all kind of confidence in him , if emery managed to give him some time and instill some belief in him he could be our very own salah or henry 2.0
We have 2 of the best strikers in Europe in Aubameyang and Lacazette so why go for another one who is not yet up to their standard?
Martial is a winger.
Also, Lacazette is hardly one of the best in europe.
Jury’s our on Lacazette still, but no question about Aubameyang.
Can’t wait to see him in all competitions so he can absolutely smoke marble mouth.
Who is marble mouth lmao I’m dying
*World-class
He will Require an XXXL Jersey to fit his name, would be cool if it just read “Pasta”
Papa soky or soky papa
Nah. If it’s possible to get “Vennegor of Hesselink” on a shirt, anything else is a piece of piss.
Welcome on board !
Fix the defensive midfield now please!!!!
A LOT MORE than the Belgian can provide
With Sokratis, we will have a team with some of the hardest name to spell.
Yes, we definately do not want Fellaini. Way too easy for the commentators to pronounce.
Great Headline
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he wishes to have. To find yourself, think for yourself.The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.
We cannot live better than in seeking to become better. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
We’ll be a laughing stock if we get Fellaini.
Everyone knows we need reinforcements in midfield, and if this is who we end up recruiting then it’ll provide another reason for people to write us off.
Surely there’s better out there to get – even if he is available on a free
Don’t know why some fans are complaining because he’s old. He’s like a couple of months older than Aubamayeng.
My issue with Papa isn’t his bad form or age, but that in terms of defensive style, he’s similar to Mustafi and Kos (and our defensive purchases of the last decade bar Per).
Was hoping for someone more commanding and physical to compliment Mustafi (if we keep him), rather than another front-foot attacking CB again.
Go on Papa Papa
This guy, Lichtstiener and Fellaini are all incredibly underwhelming signings if true. If Wenger was still manager and these were the guys we’d been linked to we’d be going nuts and rightly so, as they’re not going to address the problem area of the team, namely our dysfunctional midfield. Personally i think the signing to 2 veteran defenders with no experience of english football would be a massive waste of resources. Defending in the premier league is in general, a young mans game as it’s so physically demanding, especially with the midfield protection our current player provide its defence and… Read more »
You’re my centre half now Dave
Why does arsenal deals drags agonisingly long, underwhelming signing but we gotta support the team anyway but we v been talking papastathopouslos, leichsteiner deal for like two weeks now by the way we have come from being invincibles to the unpronounceables…James words
Maybe i should i should i have had a little patience #welcomelichteiner
Off topic I know, but after rewatching the UCL match between Madrid and Liverpool I’m convinced that karius threw that game. And from what’s said of florentino Perez, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some match fixing involved.
The shirt printers at the club shop will have a restless night tonight.
“Back in 15 minutes, gone for a ‘P'”
This title is everything.
Generally from my research it seems as though he is a good player who could push on futher and that while his last season at Dortmund wasn’t the best by any standard, perhaps Mislintat has identified that Emery’s methods will be perfect for getting the best out of him