Why Arsenal must offload centre-back Sokratis amidst Roma interest
According to Calciomercato (h/t The Sun), Roma are targeting Arsenal centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who earns £92,000-a-week at the Emirates.
A struggling defence has seen the Gunners drop to a lowly 9th place in the league this season, prompting coach Mikel Arteta to look for new reinforcements.
On-loan Roma defender Chris Smalling has evolved as one of Arteta’s primary targets, with the centre-back said to available for a price around £21million. Meanwhile, Roma are on the lookout for a new defender with Smalling’s future at the club remaining an uncertainty.
The Englishman is expected to return to his parent club when his loan spell ends this summer. However, with Smalling set to make a return to England, Roma has been left with a big void to be filled at the heart of their defence.
Sokratis has been in and out of the side, with inconsistency and poor form restricting him to just 19 league appearances so far. Sokratis has also managed a mere three clean sheets this season, which speaks volumes about his dip in form. Age seems to have slowed down the centre-back, who once was a first-team regular with Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen.
Roped in by former Gunners boss Unai Emery in 2018, Sokratis was a regular feature in the first-team line-up in his first season at the Emirates. However, the veteran defender has not achieved anything significant with the Gunners yet.
It’s time for Arsenal to let go of Sokratis
Now with the Greek star attracting interest from Roma, it would be better of Arsenal to let go of their seasoned defender, who is already in his thirties. Also, he has fallen out of favour with Arteta.
In their last four league outings, he featured in just one of them, that too at right-back. Hence, it is very clear that he is not the first name in Arteta’s plans. So it would be wise of Arsenal to cash in on their veteran star and offload him to Italy amidst Roma interest.
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Verdict
The Gunners have enough defenders in their midst and selling Sokratis will not cause them any major harm. Moreover, he looks way past his prime and is clearly a shadow of his former self. The club needs some young blood at the back if they wish to improve next season. Thus, offloading Sokratis seems like the perfect option right now.
