Arsenal have reportedly made an offer for a Borussia Dortmund player, but looking forward into the story it appears to either have been misunderstood or just completely wrong and made up.
The Gunners are known to be in the market for a new central defender this summer and one defender that is available is Dortmund defender Neven Subotic. The Serbian has been strongly linked with a move away, with Liverpool, Everton and Middlesborough also linked. FC Koln in Germany are also mooted as a potential destination.
But according to the Express in Germany, Arsenal have firmed up their interest with a €14million bid. That seems feasible until you do a little digging and find out that Dortmund appear to only be asking for around €5million for Subotic, so why would Arsenal, who always aim to get the best financial deal, offer so much? It doesn’t add up, so we think this rumour is probably made up.
It is possible that the Express were informed of Arsenal’s interest in Subotic, and perhaps even a bid – and then they just speculated the exact amount to complete the story.
It’s worth waiting and seeing what happens on this one as Subotic is in England and set to move, although Middlesborough at this stage seems the most realistic destination. Subotic may not be world class but at €5million for a potential starter? Surely he’s worth a punt.
That would free up an enormous amount of budget to be spent on a striker, we could even go big for Aubameyang. Well I know we won’t, but, we could.
Subotic barely played last season so we’ve taken his statistics from the 2014/15 campaign. Despite Dortmund’s failure that season, Subotic notched up some pretty good stats. He managed 2.25 interceptions per 90 mins and 1.78 tackles. Perhaps the most impressive statistics though were his 4.98 aerial duels won per game, he uses his 6ft 3′ frame very well in duels. With just 1 defensive error in 2277 minutes, he appears to be a fairly reliable presence in defence too. He averaged just 2.77 aerial duels, 1.96 interceptions and 0.95 tackles per 90 minutes. All impressive statistics, though his injury record is a worry.