Arsenal were rocked by their captain Laurent Koscielny’s’ refusal to join the tour ahead of the 2019-20 season, and now could lose another first-team centre-back as Shkodran Mustafi is reportedly a target of AS Monaco. The Ligue 1 side are reportedly keen on signing the German centre-back, who joined the Gunners in 2016 but has had an error-strewn run over the last two seasons.
French newspaper L’Equipe (via Mirror Football) are reporting that the Ligue 1 side are keen on signing the 27-year-old defender who is worth £30 million as per the Gunners. The English side bought the German defender from Valencia for around £35 million in 2016. The Gunners let go of several players at the end of the 2018-19 season, including the likes of Aaron Ramsey, David Ospina, Stephan Lichtsteiner, and Danny Welbeck, while Petr Cech retired.
Arsenal have made three signings so far – defender William Saliba from Saint-Etienne, who has returned to the French club on loan, Brazilian winger Gabriel Martinelli, and Real Madrid’s Dani Ceballos, on loan. They are also closing in on the signing of Nicolas Pépé from Lille.
Should Arsenal sell Mustafi?
Arsenal’s Achilles heel was the poor defence under former manager Arsene Wenger and that seemed to continue under Unai Emery. The Gunners let in 51 goals last season in the league, more than double of what champions Manchester City (23 goals) conceded.
The Gunners are set to lose captain Koscielny, while Rob Holding is still out injured, which leaves a huge gap in the Gunners’ defence. Emery has just Sokratis, Calum Chambers – who returned after a loan spell with Fulham, and Konstantinos Mavropanos, apart from Mustafi, in defence. Mustafi has been error-prone in his three years with the Gunners and hasn’t lived up to expectations, but the English club must not sell him until they have replacements lined up for him.
Arsenal could be in a situation where they start the season with 31-year-old Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and Calum Chambers – a player who was a part of Fulham’s defence last season, which let in a mind-boggling 81 goals though he put up a number of commendable displays and has surely grown as a player.
The Gunners need an experienced centre-back who can take the place of Koscielny, who was one of the club’s best defenders over the last decade and Emery might decide that Mustafi can turn his career around at the Emirates and back him for at least one more season.