How goes, Gooners?
With very little time remaining in the transfer market, Arsenal have all of a sudden become perhaps the busiest club in England, with a number of players expected to come in. However, the imminent arrivals of Shokdran Mustafi from Valencia and Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna, might not be the end of things to see for Arsenal.
Arsenal’s Calum Chambers is expected to leave the club on loan, to get more playing time, and the England Under21 international is now on the verge of sealing a season long loan move to Premier League side Middlesbrough, with some reports claiming that the player has ‘joined’ the newly promoted entrants.
That is according to Skysports, which claims that while the move has not been officially announced,, Boro are favourites to land the 21 year old in spite interest from other clubs. With just 2 days remaining in the transfer market, personal terms are yet to be agreed. However it can be presumed with some certainty that a deal will go through and that Chambers will be a Boro player before the end of the transfer window.
Another report in The Sun has claimed that Calum Chambers has in actual fact ‘joined’ Middlesbrough, who lost out on Borussia Dortmund’s Neven Subotic, and have eyed Chambers as a possible addition in the heart of defense.
Chambers joined Arsenal from Southampton in a £16m deal in the summer of 2016. With injuries to Mertesacker and Koscielny, Chambers saw himself drafted immediately into the first team at the heart of defense, instead of his usual right back position. A series of decent performances in Europe, the community shield against Manchester City and then alongisde Koscielny against Crystal Palace in the Premiership, earned him high praises from pundits and fans alike.
Chambers has made 59 appearances for the Gunners in all competitions, 36 of which have been in the Premier League. He has 3 goals to his name for Arsenal.
With the arrival of Shkodran Mustafi and starlet Rob Holding retaining his place alongside Koscielny, it seems unlikely that Chambers would get the kind of playing time he needs to grow and improve. However, a loan move for the young Englishman considering the frequency of injuries the Arsenal squad succumbs to.
Inspite the fact that Mustafi’s arrival would leave Arsenal with 6 players competing for the 2 centre back positions, with Gabriel and Mertesacker out for long periods, Chambers’s loan move would once again leave Arsenal with only 3 central defenders.
In the event 2 out of any of Rob Holding, Mustafi and Koscielny get injured, Wenger would have hit square 1 again; a defensive crisis in early on in the season. In this context, one could argue that Chambers should be held on to, at least till the January transfer window.
