Life After Per

Laporte would cost alot considering Bilbaos previous sales.

We could go back in for Nastasic

Wengers a fan of Chris Smalling we tried to get him before he signed for Utd and again last season as a swap deal for Vermaelen

Would love to see Lovren or Skrtel

Got a horrible feeling koscienly is out for a very long time

Smalling as our main CB would be underwhelming. Wouldn't mind him as a back up option though.

Bar the obvious (Hummels) I'm drawing blanks when trying to list viable affordable options.
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You have absolutely no clue of what you are talking.

I try to explain it...First of all Hummels has been absolutely abysmal this season. It's surely due to injuries and tiredness of the WC.

Is Hummels available? Surely not.

I hate sounding like a broken record but Joseph Yobo is the future of the Arsenal defence

Chambers is a ready made replacement, no point holding him back.

Not sure why people think hummels and kompany are elite CB's both dog sht players.

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
Got a horrible feeling koscienly is out for a very long time


Trust Castor to be the eternal optimist.

There are a lot of good options out there.

I don't think we necessarily need an established WC CB; we need to find a player that suits our system.

Look at someone like Gary Cahill: he was never considered a top-class CB, but under Mourinho's tutelage and sound defensive structure, he's been one of the best defenders in the country over the last year or so.

And as you say, when played in a relatively deep-lying set-up, Mertesacker (and the Mertesacker-Koscielny partnership as a whole) looked exceptional. But any time we opted to push for a high-line, he looked completely out of his depth against the top sides (namely Chelsea and Liverpool).

Unfortunately, I think we're always going to have to accept some defensive fragility given the way we play under Wenger, but I think a mobile defender that's comfortable covering the channels (unlike Mertesacker and, at the moment, Chambers) could result in a dramatic improvement in our defensive game, whilst also giving the full-backs more license to push forward.

Van Dijk's been linked, and whilst he may be a bit unproven, he looks like he has all the attributes needed to be a fantastic acquisition. There are reports suggesting that we could get him for ~£15m, which, if true, would be very good business IMO.