Ach wrote:Sevilla are keen to sign Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos, according to Mundo Deportivo.
The Greece U21 international, who only moved to the Emirates Stadium from PAS Giannina in January, has yet to feature for the Gunners this season due to a groin injury.
As a result new Arsenal boss Unai Emery has yet to see the defender in action, meaning Sevilla may have until at least the end of the season for a decision on his availability.
Bye
Within some 5/10 minutes of his first game for us and definitely before he had completed his debut stint in an Arsenal shirt, some people could see that Cesc Fabregas was a baller of the highest order.
Similar could easily be said of Robin van Persie, Jack Wilshire and Ashley Cole. If in the eyes of some, the catastrophic injury records and consequential detriment of the formers are more relevant to that consideration than their talent and ability, then that's their prerogative.
Konstantinos Mavropanos, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira are the only players who have similarly grabbed my attention within 5 minutes of watching them for the first time, probably since a 18/19 year old Arron Ramsey at Cardiff. And regardless of the esteem that the Welshman may or may not be held in amongst the masses now, he was definitely an even better player back then prior to that horrific leg break.
My point is that when I similarly made an effort to watch Celtic games after seeing that we had been interested in their new Dutch centre back, my conclusion was that we should pay the £10M or so it would have taken to nab him given it was less than half way through his first season and about treble what they paid if I remember correctly. We didn't and he was at Southampton some 18 months later for about £12M. Only fools couldn't see the massive potential that was clearly on display when Virgil van Djyk was playing in Scotland.
The same applies to Harry Maguire if not more so, given that my interest was piqued during his debut season for Sheffield United due to his size, speed and good level of technique. I could hardly believe it when he ended up at Hull City and I honestly remember thinking that I must be missing something, a prominent flaw that I was somehow oblivious to. That we never even had a sniff at him when they got relegated and he ended up at Leicester for less than £20M had me booking my appointment at Specsavers.
On another chat site I actually had the audacity to suggest that whilst recognising the assassin like defensive expertise of Diego Godin, his partner Almeryc Laporte was more suitable for our needs. Even though he was playing CB for Atletic Madrid, many still didn't think he was good enough for us and was being made to look good by Godin. Yes, the same Laporte who is now a defensive mainstay of Man City.
Potential is only that until it is fulfilled. All I'm saying is that you could see the potential within the aforementioned players who have all gone on to turn it into reality. Mavropanos has as much potential as van Djyk did.
Considering our track record, it could be on the cards that we let him leave for somewhere like Sevilla then watch as within 2 years they reap the rewards of a bidding war between Real, Utd, Chelsea and Barca.