Arsenal’s pre-season preparations got off to a good start earlier this month, with fans everywhere still skipping around with a smile on their face remembering that the £30m live-wire Alexis Sanchez will be plying his trade at the Emirates next season; and they look set to add to their squad before transfer deadline day.
Read more – Alexis Sanchez completes £30m move to Arsenal
A good time to be an Arsenal fan? It seems to be quite good to be a player too, with three of the squad (the Premier League’s biggest contingency of Germans) getting their hands on the World Cup trophy on the weekend. Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski are World Cup winners, and they have been taking part in an open-bus celebration in the German capital, with the latter pair photoed with Jerome Boateng, the Bayern Munich defender.
Boateng, who played every match for Joachim Low’s side, quickly put up photos of him with Ozil and Podolski onto his Twitter account during the parade, hinting at a budding friendship, and potentially starting tongues wagging over a summer move to join them in North London.
The 25-year-old revealed before the World Cup Final that he shared a room with all three Gunners in Brazil, Sami Khedira (very strongly linked with a move to Arsenal this week), and Hannover keeper Ron-Robert Zieler.
My roommates and me after today’s training #final #WorldCup2014 #DFB #DFBTeam #wirfuer4 #GERARG pic.twitter.com/JjUQoOIF6t
— Jerome Boateng (@JB17Official) July 11, 2014
While Arsenal are closing in on the £12m signing of Mathieu Debuchy from Newcastle, questions are starting to be asked of Carl Jenkinson, with Southampton’s Carl Jenkinson today linked with a move to North London to provide competition for the incoming Debuchy.
Also, with Thomas Vermaelen’s Arsenal future still in serious doubt, Arsene Wenger could well be on the lookout for centre-back reinforcements, with Boateng certainly able to play a number of roles at the back, spending last season with Bayern in the heart of defence with the Brazilian Dante.
According to transfermarkt.co.uk, Boateng would cost upwards of £20m (considering this contract runs until 2018), but while Wenger is slowly becoming more comfortable with spending that kind of cash, he is still more inclined to bring in interesting young talent to provide cover, and learn from the established stars at the club.
Boateng would be a good investment, considering his age and abilities, but it seems unlikely at this point that the Gunners would go for him. Ozil, Mertesacker and Podolski may have preached the wonders of playing for a club like Arsenal to the former Manchester City man (and perhaps even Khedira considering the rumours surrounding the Real Madrid midfielder), but Arsenal may look to youth to back up the likes of Debuchy and Koscielny next season.
Still, stranger things have happened…
What do you think? Could Arsenal make a move for Boateng?
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