Arsenal were initially set to sign Omar Rekik at the end of the last transfer window in September but the move failed to materialise due to the paperwork not being completed on time.
Next month, however, Rekik is set to finally become an Arsenal player, with the 18-year-old centre-back poised to link up with the Gunners’ U23 squad initially.
Rekik has featured prominently for Hertha Berlin’s reserve side, while he has also been an unused substitute at first-team level.
The younger brother of Sevilla defender Karim, Rekik previously played for the Netherlands at youth level but was recently called up to the Tunisia senior squad.
Sokratis and William Saliba have been the regular pairing at centre-back for Arsenal U23s in recent weeks, but is is hoped that neither player will still be playing at that level in the second half of the season.
Joseph Olowu is back from his loan spell at Cork City but has barely featured of late, while Daniel Ballard and Harry Clarke could see their loans at Blackpool and Oldham respectively extended.
Rekik, therefore, could build up a partnership with Jonathan Dinzeyi at centre-back in the second half of the season.
Former Tottenham youngster Dinzeyi has been rather inconsistent since joining the club but could benefit from playing alongside Rekik, who is very highly regarded.
—
Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Seems to have been a few instances of ‘the paperwork wasn’t finished on time’ in the last window, which seems… insane? At a club at this level we’re not completing paperwork?
I guess they let a lot of staff go to pay for Willian’s wages.
I’m not saying this as an excuse for the club in any way, but when your DoF gets canned halfway through the window and your contracts guy was seemingly on his way out the door as well, it’s not that surprising that we were a mess from an administrative point of view. Should the club have allowed themselves to be caught in that situation? No fucking way, but it doesn’t surprise me too much.
That’s why you should never trust that “go green, go paperless” bs :]
This is one I will cynically be watching come next season if arteta is still around. Just to see if the kid gets minutes or is required to have a ‘transitional’ season. Considering he’s played no top flight football thus far but we have a guy who has played top flight football in the French league with higher reputation but needs more football elsewhere first. Just curious to see the true character of the guy we have in charge
I had a bad dream yesterday, the window passed and we didnt sign anyone.
The points matter more than saving a few million on transfer….hope we don’t have to wait till end of a transfer window, if that happens it will not be for the betterment of team but for just PR Marketing…which i guess is more or less taken by regular adverts from Adidas.
So hope sense prevails and we sign players in the begining of the transfer window and not end.
We’re not going to sign any players.
We’ve got plenty of players, we’ve got a first team squad of 31, which is at least 7 too many. I don’t see the market being any easier in January, than it was last summer. There’s no way we should make any knee jerk decisions, the very last thing we need is more overpaid dross, who we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future. Unless we can find a way to ship out at least 3 players, I don’t see how we can bring in another. If Edu + Arteta are responsible for signing Willian, Soares, Mari, and renewing David Luiz?… Read more »
I know his brother’s not a bad player. As far as Omar goes? Well…I found him on Fifa a little while back and he’s actually a good prospect (Career potential of 82), so there’s that, for whatever it’s worth (which probably isn’t a lot, but I’ll take anything I can get right about now!).
Pretty sure this is the way Edu scouted him as well lol
I’m ecstatic at this news! A young central defender who’s never played a first team game for a mid-table Bundesligue team. Just the type of signing we require. We move.
He’s a very highly rated young central defender who could save us a fortune if he progresses as expected. Some of our young signings have been very good, and yes, it’s exactly the type of signing we require, he’s one for the future. Clearly we need a good midfielder for the first team, but this is a good signing.
Whatever. not an area we need to concentrate on. We have Mavropanos who is no longer young…likely he will be sold looks like it. Also Chambers. And Saliba for 27m not used. Could at very least have used him over Mustafi in europa minnows group stage but maybe he isn’t even as convincing as Mustafi which says more about our transfer team. still considering money spent, you’d expect him to feature so we can have better assessment, nothing like the real ting over training ground. We will continue to fluff around. And we’ve missed the boat on Aoaur likely and… Read more »
Plus a host of players that need to get off the books. Converse issue is Edu doesn’t know how to sell which affects our buy in. So we have to cut corners. Bargain stupidly for Aoaur with low derisory bid at 32m and then piss off Aulus by going over his head as well….then instead of making the right offer for 45m mark go back cap in hand to owners bc Aulus refuses to sell and pay 45m for Partey anyway. I said it before I would have brougt either of Khedira or (preferably)Banega for free into midfield to help… Read more »
The year is 2077, and ArseCorps Inc. now controls 99.9% of the Earth’s centre back resources. Clubs across the globe struggle desperately to defend, but are helpless against the strikeforce of ArseCorps’ FA Cup winning cyborg Matt Smith-Bot and the reconstituted fetus of Omari Hutchinson. Meanwhile, facing the augmented reality press after their battling 0-0 draw against Cyber-Burnley a 95 year old Mikel Arteta addressed the sending off of Granit Xhaka. The ArseCorps midfielder collected the 190th red card of his career for a late and ill-advised flying headbutt on referee, Mark Halsey The Third, 2 minutes into the first… Read more »
Let’s hope he has character along with skills.