You may be wondering why Arsenal are yet to announce the signing of Sokratis from Borussia Dortmund. Months ago BBC said the Gunners were set to complete the signing but now the player is flying to the club to complete the move, as Dortmund stalled an official announcement until July.
Due to Dortmund’s preferences, they’d like to announce the deal after July 1 because of their financial year starting. This is mainly due to the fact that they sold Dembele in their current financial year.
The defender will join for ‘just’ £14million because he failed to agree an extension on his current deal at Dortmund, which had just one year remaining.
On Sunday pictures emerged of Sokratis travelling to London to complete the deal.
Mislintat was influential in bringing both Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan to the club in January and now he is set to add another former Borussia Dortmund player in Sokratis.
Sokratis will add height, aggression and experience to an Arsenal defence that is often lacking in all three of those departments.
With Stephan Lichtsteiner already added, that could be Arsenal’s defensive business done. Unai Emery is a big fan of Calum Chambers and is set to sign him to a new deal. The Gunners are also being linked with a move for French international Benjamin Pavard, who is an exciting prospect from Stuttgart and has impressed at the World Cup for France.
Mavropanos, who was signed in January is also rated highly at the club and could compete for a starting place. Rob Holding could be set for a loan deal, whilst the future of Skhodran Mustafi remains in doubt. Sokratis has similar attributes to Mustafi so them being paired together is unlikely, in which case, Mustafi could be sold.