According to Italian outlet RAI, Sokratis is set to join Napoli in a deal worth around €4.5m.
The Greek defender has been increasingly marginalised since Mikel Arteta took over, and after the restart barely played at all apart from a couple of fleeting substitute appearances – the last of which came in the FA Cup final on August 1st.
A popular figure around the club, he is one of the many centre-halves Arsenal have collected, and the numbers mean some have to go.
He will join up with his former AC Milan teammate Gennaro Gattuso who is now Napoli manager.
Sokratis has made 69 appearances since his £16m move from Borussia Dortmund in 2018, scoring 6 goals and just one red card. He was not in the squad for the Community Shield with Liverpool on Saturday.
Thank you and good luck! Bring that money in!
Edu’s peace offering to De Laurentis after hijacking Magalhaes deal!
The ‘thank you and good luck’ bit is honourable. ?
The ‘bring that money in’ bit is pitiful. ?
It is all accurate. We need it and credit to Sokratis for wanting to earn his buck with a knew challenge , admirable.
Borrusia dortmund sold us 29 year old at 16m. Now watch us selling mustafi,kola,holding,chambers and sokratis at 15m.
2020 : People are amazed by depreciation
Yes. In the world where luiz is sold for 7m, i am amazed by the depreciation.
*33 year old luiz
A) Luiz was a panic buy and we took the bait
B) I do think the reputation that Arsenal carries as a defensive team affects the price of our defenders.
Honestly, I’m not going to judge Edu over the outgoings this season because this is an issue that took years in the making. We’ve bought decent players and given them massive contracts, weakening our own position in the market.
I don’t think anyone expected Luiz to be the answer to all our problems. He mad some bad errors, but he also had some outstanding games and played a big part in winning the cup. He has also been spoken of super highly by all the players and coaches and in clearly has a big influence and impact on the younger players. I actually think he has been a decent signing all-in-all. He’s definitely contributed and continues to do so. A good signing, maybe not, but a bad signing definitely not.
I agree with you. But Luiz was a panic buy, and not a great one at that. However, he’s definitely repaid the transfer fee we paid for him with his end-of-season performances. He was immense in the semis and solid in the final. The one-year extension with a pay cut feels smart, too because he could be instrumental in helping Gabriel (if he signs) settle down.
I could even see him signing another contract as a player-coach role, if that is still an option?! I think he’ll be a really good coach in the future. Quirky mentality (kinda needed), but a good guy, head for the game, and good technical guy that clearly knows a thing or two! He has a big role to play this year with the young guys coming in. It’s clear they all look up to him!
He’ll go back to chelski as Cech did, the way he pushed for his place in the team for EL final was disgraceful, also knowing he’s going back to our rival. On the other hand, even w Leno we wouldn’t win.
Disgraceful? Our first-choice keeper in league matches, distinguished career, winner of multiple trophies, about to retire, wants to start a Europa League final? What professional football player–what professional athlete–would do anything else?
Luiz was a decent signing….Skokratis not so good…Mustafi was bad….Koscielny and Mertesacker were good signings…Gabriel was bad…Chambers not good…Wishing Saliba and Gabriel Megalhes to be good signings…
cmon cliff, holding and. chambers are young no excuses
They are young, but price – particularly in the current market – is determined as much/more by quality as by age (do I hear that dreaded word “potential”?). The truth is that the players you mention are pretty average. Unfortunately, Arsenal have quite a lot of these – particularly centre backs currently. Any fees (and they won’t be anywhere near large, let’s not kid ourselves) will be a bonus of course, but the point is to get them/their wages off the books pdq. Saying and doing it are, I admit, two quite different things as we’re finding out in this… Read more »
I agree with @goongot. It’s a combination of Dortmund’s maverick + our incompetence. What I mean is, if we were selling a 29 yo Sokratis, we’d have sold him for 10m less. Its been our trend for the past 6-7 years and apart from the Ox and Iwobi, we’ve not been very good at selling (due to one reason or another). I’d love to see us change that.
But that is the thing here, everyone is complaining about selling AMN right now because he’s had some good games. That is exactly the time players have value. Selling high, but no one wants to because they think we have superstars after a few good games. Then another bad run of form comes and players like AMN go back into the “he’s rubbish, sell him” stockpile, except when times are lean values plummet. We made really good sales on Ox and Iwobi. The players we have that we could sell now for some good money are AMN, Bellerin, Lacazette, Xhaka,… Read more »
Yes but for me AMN shouldn’t be the first out of the door. I rather see some sell-able players that hasn’t fit in the team moved out first. Such as Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Chambers/Holding and Torreira
However if we haven’t managed to move anyone and the window is closing, then AMN might be the only option to recoup some cash.
I rather keep hold of AMN because he looks to be ever improving under Arteta
Well, it’s a depressed, buyer’s, market. Also, if we’re honest, he just isn’t very good is he? Most Gooners know that and if we know, potential buyers know. I reckon that the reported fee is about as good as we can get in the present circumstances – and we remove his (reported) large salary as well. Most of the other players you mention are also very average as well (putting it politely) so I would expect appropriate “moderate” fees there as well (always assuming we can sell any of them, of course, which should tell you something).
My how times have changed.
I can just picture the North Bank, circa 1984, all the lads with their Charlie Nicholas mullets.
Except now, in my minds eye, instead of wearing pastel Tacchini jumpers, Lacoste jeans and white Air Nikes and discussing last weekend’s trip to Stamford Bridge and Woodcock’s goal, they’re now all wearing shiny grey suits with the sleeve jackets pushed up to the elbow, twanging their red and white Gordon Gekko braces and discussing the sell on figure we might get for Colin Hill.
Pretty tidy goal return for a centre back. Of all our defenders his departure makes the most sense to me, even if it is for spare change in this market.
We sure know how to sell for a loss.
No. Not a stock, but a depreciating asset. Getting 4.5 milion euros and dumping his salary to get liquidity intead of throwing good money after bad is a win. especially in this market. beyond that, he was a decent enough player and person — if we’r not going to play him (and we shouldn’t), its fair to him to move him on.
Credit Sokratis too, he’ll have to take a pay cut, but he is a good dude and clearly would rather be playing than sitting on his arse taking massive pay and not playing [turns to a certain former German international]!
We have another former German international (on less massive pay) who chose the same thing, despite being told he wasn’t part of our plans several times
Which I think is the biggest argument why it would be crazy to extend Mustafi’s contract, we will be stuck with him until that contract ends
Respect to Sokratis though. Would have been very easy for him to take a lucrative gap year here, before taking a free transfer to the mls, probably on similar wages to what he’ll get at Napoli
How? What would say his market value is? We signed him two years ago for 16 million and he’s now only got a few years left at the top level. I’m sick of the management of contracts and selling players on the cheap but this one isn’t a bad deal.
Great lad but his time is up. One of Emery’s signings that may leave this window. The other is Guendouzi abd Torreira.
More than Emery, Sven had a say about signing his protegee from Dortmund
Finally we have outgoing…. not particulary glad with the price tag but we really need to move some players out.
I like sokratis and some of his video interviews with fellow team mates were good fun, thought he brought a positive determined attitude that the team needed but with a new face coming in, him coming to the end of his playing career and already too many centre backs this does make sense. Sokratis – sold, Holding – loaned to Newcastle, Mavro – loaned… who is next to go?
The deal is fair enough. He was quite decent but not arsenal standard. Farewell
Gattuso and Sokratis standing together, intimidating the shit out of oppenent with their stare. Lol
Gattuso seems to have become such a gentleman as a manager though. Far from the dirty nasty defender he was as a player.
He’s still good old Gattuso. His interview statements are as real as they come.
Gattuso has never been defender in his career. DM predominantly, CM on occasions and RB or RW sometimes.
He got maybe 4-5 games in his whole career where he played as a central defender.
Lol. I just imagined them in a stare off with each other, as part of Papa’s initiation into their team.
Two words; Sandwich Tackle…
Thank you you for everything papa
This is good for Arsenal and Sokratis. Gattuso gets someone he knows. We need to clear the decks and move on. All the best, Papa!
Papa was a real bastard of a defender, but that is a great quality since he was our bastard, because that’s how it works. Good luck, Papa and thank you!
About what we could expect, fee wise, for him. Every little helps of course.The main benefit is to get his wages (reported to be a six figure a week salary) off the books. We need to do a lot more on the transfers out front though – the reported fees for Greenwood and Sokratis combined will barely pay one year’s salary for Willian!
Don’t forget saving of his salary/remainder of the contract that can effectively be diverted to William now 🙂
In his prime, at a time when centerbacks were not expected to be that mobile or adept with the ball at their feet as they are now, Sokratis was an excellent defender. But, he was already past his prime and something of an anachronism when he came to the Arsenal. At this point, he is well past his prime and simply not a fit for the role of the modern centerback. He did the best that he was capable of and gave an honest effort, for which we should thank him. But he is, indeed, surplus to the requirements of… Read more »
Agreed. In short, we need ball playing defender but he is not. Parting way is beneficial for both parties.Wish him good luck in Italy and enjoy his time as a father.
Hmmm
Another over the top acquisition by Sanllehi and his super agent Kia. They paid more than his exit clause required. Sanllehi must be investigated by the Police.
Next should be Mustafi, Quendozi, Ozil and Kolasinac
Was sanllehi even at the club then? I thought it was a Sven signing
Yeah. Sanllehi (officially) was at Arsenal from February 2018 and Sokratis was signed in July 2018. Though you are correct that his transfer had Sven stamped all over it
His willingness to forego the remaining £4.8m of wages at Arsenal in order to play top-class football at 32 makes a mockery of you-know-who’s attitude. Well played Sokratis and good luck.
Sokratis changing countries days after his baby was born, to get playing time. Then there’s Mesut and his wife.
It makes sense for all parties. Papa can be happy and get game time, he seems a nice guy and he’s always done his best for us. I will miss that serious face and shithousery. Thank you Papa and good luck in beautiful Naples.
A shame, I liked his shit-housery and his wind-ups. It was quite refreshing to see one of our lads mixing it up for a change. That said, he was never going to be the best but also never the worst. I wish him well. Footnote: A salary saved and a few quid in a transfer fee into the coffers. Stan will be pleased. Can someone at the Emirates – assuming there’s any staff left – please inform him of the good news when he comes indoors from mowing the turf with some rusty old 1960’s lawnmower he spent three hours… Read more »
“just one red card” – hahahha… Made my day!
Good luck to him, if this comes true we could cross paths again in the Europa League.
I have nothing against Socratis , even though am not a huge fan, I wish him well
Hard working and aggressive. A solid defender.
Not good at passing out from the back under pressure. That’s Arteta’s tactic, so Papa’s a gonna, not a gooner
Never let us down massively but not quite good enough, all in all not one of the worst transfers from the last few years.
Shame to see Sokratis going , good old fashion defender.
Ah yes. And let’s hear the bean-counter Arsenal “supporters” pissing and moaning about someone else’s money.
I bet all these arm-chair wannabe video gamers could do so much better in the real world.
at least he leaves i had we have like 9 defenders why did emery sign him emery sucks