Arsenal have confirmed that Calum Chambers has signed for Fulham on a season-long loan deal.
The 23-year-old only signed a four-year contract extension at the Emirates in July and seemed destined to spend the season competing for a starting berth under Unai Emery. Obviously, things have changed quite quickly.
It’s no secret that Arsenal have been trying to trim the squad ahead of the new season, that said, it’s somewhat surprising that Chambers is the one to make way. Moreover, we’re now being linked with another centre-back recruit, Domagoj Vida.
He currently plies his trade with Besiktas, and the Turkish side are reportedly looking for a fee in excess of €20m for the 29 year old.
It’s the second time we’ve sent Calum out on loan. He enjoyed a fruitful spell at Middlesbrough in 2016/17 and will no doubt be excited about the prospect of regular football at Craven Cottage.
Meanwhile, Unai Emery has said of Chambers departure on loan, “Calum is a talented defender who has a bright future.
“We all believe this loan at Fulham will be an important part of his development and wish him a successful season.”
Just four weeks ago, when the Englishman signed his second contract extension inside 7 months, Emery said this, “I’m delighted Calum has extended his stay with us.
“He played an important role last season and will be part of my plans this season.”
Clearly something has changed significantly in that time. Anyway, best of luck to Chambers throughout the season.
I’d rather it was Mustafi but that’s just me being racist
haha
there is arseblog twitter context to this joke for those uninformed.
Makes little sense to me until I remember this is Arsenal & the transfer market and there’s generally no rhyme or reason to what we do in the window.
This has just gone over my head to be honest. Was starting to like Chambers a lot as a center back.
I would say Chambers is actually better than Mustafi.
Weird even by our standards.
Exactly
So do I, but I think Holding had a better pre season. I think this is a good move for everyone. Chambers is still young enough to be an Arsenal legend, he’ll be busy at Fulham he can peove himself there.
Prove
I can understand it if Chambers’ departure means arrival of a quality centre back like Boateng (who’s good friends with Ozil and a business partner of Jay Z !) but I just don’t see it happening this late in the transfer window. And the name Doma Vida doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Me. Now I really hope Sokratis stays injury free and succeeds big time. Otherwise our defence would again prove to be our undoing like last season. Fingers crossed !
Why though? I don’t see how Vida of Besiktas is better than Chambers.
I suppose we just have to trust that the club know what they’re doing
They haven’t been doing bad so far to be fair
‘Vida of besiktas’, sounds like a fantasy novel character.
Agree either way.
or an anagram
Avoid fast bikes.
I thought Vida was one of the best centre halves at the world cup. But then Mustafi looked pretty good in the last Euros. I do like that mix of speed and cuntishness that Vida has. Still baffled that they’ve biked Callum though.
While Chambers going on loan isn’t something very very bothersome, the potential incoming bothers me. Don’t think this Vida fellow is anything great, nor is he fast enough to play a high line. Doesn’t really pass it out, though he does keep it simple and hoof it out to touch. No resale value. We could have just signed a premier league veteran like Jonny Evans for way less, than spend that much money potentially.
nicely put. it isn’t so much the outgoing but the rumored incoming of Vida. seems brainless to me. on the one hand i feel like we are rebuilding, on the other we are buying this “experienced” older players whose best years are far behind them. we are already the oldest team in the “top 6” in the epl. we cannot rebuild around players with 1-2 year span left in their professional careers.
46 year old me is very sad to hear that ones best years are far behind them at 29.
I wish Calum all the best and hope he gets a ton of playing time and comes back even better for us next year. I’m not sure i feel comfortable with just four CBs until Kos comes back. But I also don’t think we’ll bring anyone else in.
All seems a bit strange, we seemed to have s sorted for the season ahead and now I’m not so sure. Assuming he will be replaced with somebody…
I sincerely don’t think we have a top four defence.
I think (hope) that this means that Emery only wants to bed in 1 less experienced CB this season (Holding?) and then do the same with Chambers next. CB pairing is critical and if he sees Holding and Chambers as the future then rather than let them sink or swim, he wants to manage a transition?
How naive is it to hope that we’re in for Boateng? If we want someone with experience, I’d prefer him. Has had a difficult season, also due to injuries, but is surely a quality CB. Other than Vida, who has played a good world cup, as has Lovren, and we have seen him for a few seasons and I wouldn’t swap him for any of our center backs. Not even for Mustafi. Would rather give Mavropanos a chance than buying this guy for 25 mio.
While the decision itself is baffling, it’s so weird that we have decided to loan him out so late just a couple of days before the end of the window. This again takes us back into the realms of previous windows where we complained about having no planning. This basically undoes what we set to achieve this year – being proactive rather than reactive. So I guess, we haven’t yet changed much. I mean surely we should have had a replacement lined up if we knew that he wasn’t good enough. Also, Vida? Really? Is he a significant upgrade on… Read more »
Is there we got him to sign a new contract because (a) we rate him and (b) we’re protecting the value of our asset. Considering we’re highly likely to play 4 at the back we’ve got 2 x cover with Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding and Mavropanos (plus Koscielny to come in the new year) so this is a chance to build his experience in the league rather than sitting on the bench. It makes a lot of sense.
Well, if that was the case and if the thinking was this clear, then shouldn’t this move have happened earlier in the window and with a potential replacement lined up already. I mean buying a 29 year old for 20+ million who was a free transfer last window, and without any resale value makes no sense. Also, it’s not even a big name signing to justify that overlay neither is he particularly equipped to play a high line from what we gather.
i like how everyone in these comments are crying over this loan move for chambers. we didn’t care for him before the end of last season. #faketears
Who didn’t care for him? First I’ve heard of it!
TdotO ? Idioto.
Kwame Amoadu Down-Syndrome
No massive worry or surprise for me here. I would have expected one of Holding or Chambers to go out on loan to get extended first team experience while the other is used as backup. It looks like we are playing 4 at the back with 2 cbs so we have 4/5 in the first team already when you include koscielny. That’s mustafa, sokratis, mavropanos, holding and kos maybe for the run in. Perhaps he’s encouraged by holding and opted to send chambers out to a better club with a guarantee of more football than holding would have got. I… Read more »
I’m not Chambers’s biggest fan, he’s slow and lacking in agility and athleticism, he’s much more suited to a side who sit a bit deeper.
In saying that…. he’s likely still our best centre half, or should I say “was”…
If we sign Vida to add to Sokratis and Lichtsteiner? I’d find it extremely underwhelming.
Suppose we’d better get used to this type of second rate business….
He already had a PL move with Boro and he personally had a very good season there despite they got relegated.Hard to see him topping that in an attacking Fulham team,but my point being what is the point?
And you thought our transfer deadline day dashes for defenders were over…
2 months of pure optimism, subdued by a single day.
Welcome to arsenal!
Really really odd. My question is: Who is responsible? a) Emery (what would be weird because he said that calum played an important role last season and he is planning with him) b) the board c) calum wanted to play more regular football, which i think wouldn’t be the case. But why would the board this? idk bout calums salary but honestly i don’t think it’s something to consider if u are short of defenders anyway. also vida isn’t even here yet. so we might get no more defender. i mean we never had an injury curse or something but… Read more »
he just posted this 15 minutes ago: “Delighted to have signed for Fulham FC Official on a year long loan! I felt this was the right thing to do at this point in my career and I’m up for the challenge! Wish everyone at Arsenal the very best for the season!” so i guess it’s c).
I doubt he would say: I actually didn’t want to come here but Arsenal forced me to.
I doubt Emery had much say on the matter, Sven & Raul seem to have more power over incomings and outgoings.
So despite a rather silly piece by a silly writer, the other day, the Mail was proven correct.
I guess the other snowflakes can all melt away too…
Nobody said the piece wasn’t accurate.
Just that the Mail was scumbag piece of shit rag, which it is. And using the word ‘snowflakes’ is so fucking dull.
Probably foreign snowflakes too…. what a world we live in.
*sarcasm font*
Yes Johnny Foreigner has a lot to answer for. Lets take back our country.
So despite a rather silly comment by a silly commenter, the arseblog piece was always based on the assumption that the article in the Mail was correct, because why on earth would he cite the Mail as evidence if he didn’t think the article was credible.
Go mash facts into your stupid snowflake-slagging agenda somewhere else.
I found it extremely surprising that the piece was accurate. I would never normally believe any transfer news from the mail, express, sun, mirror etc because if you pay attention pretty quickly you realise that they’re making it all up (like most of the other stuff that they print).
Nothing to be bothered about really.
Hope we get a better player to upgrade our mediocre defenders.
Have we really done that well this summer? Let’s be a bit cynical. Or realistic, as I prefer to call it. Lichtsteiner is a cheap, extremely short-term solution and we’ll probably need another RB in a year or two as a back-up/rotation. Could’ve been done this season, but no. Still, a good player whom I like, but the deal was nothing special in terms of a broader picture. Sokratis was literally the easiest thing they could do with regards to our CB situation. If he was from United, he would be called a United reject (admit it), so we brought… Read more »
Agreed another very underwhelming window. Even Fulham have signed more exciting players than us let alone the rest of the top 6.
West Ham have signed more exciting players
On the goalkeeping, i think you’re being harsh on the club. a) none of the ‘internal options’ were good enough. We knew that 100%. Cech already looks sharper knowing he has actual competition…b)..we had no takers for Ospina for 5m last summer, it’s not as if the price could drop much lower.
Lichtsteiner is a good signing too….Guendouzi too I think you’re under estimating…he has looked far more impressive than someone like The Jeff. I don’t think we’ve bought a young player this good for quite a while.
We need to do better on the outbound, 100% agreed.
Wow not majorly happy with this new, but then the whole day has been full of it!!! Two more days and the transfer window closes, kinda hope we get a winger in a swap deal with Ramsey!!! I like Ramsey as a player but if he ain’t gonna sign up we need to get shot and replaced with a quality winger!!!
I just hope Koscielny returns sooner, any injury to Sokratis or Mustafi and we will have Mavropanos or Holding making the team. I hope both of them start in our Europa league campaign and gain valuable experience.
Should have send Holding or Mavropanos on loan in place of Chambers, as Chambers looks better than the other two and has enough expierence in Premier league with Borough, Southampton and Arsenal.
Bring Merte out of retirement instead of getting those money on Vida or instead sign Burnley’s Tarkowski who was sensational last season.
To send them out on loan without them playing there isn’t a good thing at all, so I guess Chambers was the one with the best chances to earn a starting place in the PL out of these 3. I’m pretty sure that the club sees him as the furthest developed but keeping him without being able to offer him enough game time and loan out one or even both of the others without them getting game time at their loan clubs would be the worst thing. Can see the logic in sending him out. I’m just absolutely not enthused… Read more »
I know its contrary to the general opinion but I genuinely think playing a full season for Fulham will be very helpful for Chambers and I see this move by Emery as a truly long-term development tool. Playing in Fulham in his relative youth (for a defender) will prove much better for his mental and psychological growth rather than playing bits and parts at Arsenal. I feel Emery sees him as a first team regular in the future and is just preparing him for it this way. He can play bits and parts at Arsenal anytime he wants, I feel… Read more »
it would be if we didn’t end up with Vida.
Didn’t he play really well for Croatia in the world cup ?
He did play well for Croatia in the World Cup, but he has many years of playing league football by which to assess his quality; he’s not a kid who made everyone suddenly realize that he was much better than they had thought.
Good luck Callum. At this point I’m just putting all my faith in Emery!
is it too late to hope for boateng?
Croatian here writting, from Vida hometown… I can read a lot of bullshit about him so I am.going to writte some facts about him and his style of play… First of…bad things: he is not the strongest guy and might strugle in the prem and not really that great in the air. One of his weak points is passing and composure on the ball, also his weak foot (left) is not the greatest. And one more thing…he likes a beer or two after the game Now good things: he is really fast and would be our quikest CB by a… Read more »
Informed opinion, thanks. My impression from the World Cup was that he is very quick (I thought he was playing right fullback at first, because he covered the opposing winger so well) but I am not sure I agree about his reading of the game, at least against a good team. He did not look good against France.
Yes I watched all the Croatia games and Domagoj impressed in them all. Chambers being groomed to great things in coming seasons. Get behind our team FFS
Also appreciate the informed opinion.
I found Vida inconsistent in the WC which is all I know of him basically.
If we pay more than 20 mill for him we are getting screwed. Should be Sokratis-level deal at most.
He’s a Nazi yob as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t want him anywhere near Arsenal.
Some people really have their head up their arse (no offense) Mustafi – as much mistakes as he makes, others do the same or more and do not get cited. Its a case of people wanting to find more fault than there is. He leads the team in intercepts and has come up with many vital block which if it were some other player the same critics would be lauding them to no end. Fact is Mslintat (or whoever is buying and selling) has been poor in judgement. This seems to be clouded by having to buy ex-Dortmund. Elephant in… Read more »
Trent Sainsbury, Australian centre back, younger and better than Vida is currently a free agent. Just saying…
Scrub that, he’s signed with PSV…
This strikes me as a call made by Emery. He looked at the defence during pre-season and was not happy. So we had to make a change. If we were looking for quick solutions to get us back to the top 4 so that we can build a squad for the future, Jonny Evans would have been way cheaper and he has bags of Premier League experience too. This is a high outlay for a set of OK players. Unless Emery does one of those sum-is-better-than-the-parts tactics, we are not in good shape to compete with City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool… Read more »
This is a very strange move tbh. Holding joined after Chambers yet the latter is already in his second loan stint…