Arsenal
Arsenal Transfer News: Gunners Linked With Ligue 1 Defender
Arsenal are understood to be considering a move for Toulouse defender Serge Aurier as a potential replacement for Bacary Sagna, who’s expected to leave the club
With the January transfer window now open for business we’ll be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest transfer gossip. Today, Arsenal are linked with a new right back.
It’s been fairly quiet on the transfer news front today but one piece that caught my attention was that we’re understood to be considering a move for Toulouse defender Serge Aurier as a potential replacement for Bacary Sagna, according to the Mirror.
The report claims that 29-year-old Sagna is continuing to stall over a new contract offer and boss Arsene Wenger has identified the Ivory Coast born Aurier as a possible replacement should the Frenchman leave in the summer.
Aurier is a powerfully built 20-year-old right back who has played 25 games for Toulouse since moving from Lens in 2012, but I’m not sure he can be regarded as a ‘replacement’ for Sagna.
Bacary has been an established first team player for us for over five years, has played nearly 350 games during his career and has 32 international caps to his name. Some unknown 20-year-old isn’t going to replace him.
If Bac does leave in the summer, which I sincerely hope he doesn’t despite his recent dip in form, I would imagine Arsene would either bring in a more established name or simply promote Carl Jenkinson to the first team. Yes, I know Carl is only 20 himself, but he’s been with the squad for 18 months and has 29 first team appearances to him name already.
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Arsene has said he wants to build the team around a British core and handed Jenkinson a new long-term contract just last month, so I really can’t see this Aurier bloke coming in and being given the nod ahead of Jenko.
I still hope Sagna stays, as I don’t think Jenkinson is ready for the first team just yet and could do with learning from an experienced defender like Bac, so let’s see how things progress on the contract front over the coming months.
Do you want Sagna to sign a new deal? Who should replace him if he leaves in the summer? Get involved in the comments section below.
