Björn Engels

[Zenith]

Several sources in Belgium claim we bid €12m for him.

Pros
- Would add some much-needed height to our back line (6'4'')
- Very good in the air
- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch (basically his name is Björn English) and also means angel (make of that what you will)
- Life-long Gooner
- Would allow Chambers to go out on loan
- Young (turns 22 in September)
- League champion

Cons
- Young - not very experienced
- Has had 2 bad seperate knee injuries; one kept him out for 264 days, the other for 154 days. Seemingly has recover well from both injuries though

[Sims]

He's a proper Gooner ain't he

[Pudpop]

Lol how zenith describes the perfect CB signing and then ends it with Arsenal knees

[Arsenal Tone]

6'4

We have chambers, holding and bielik. If we get a CB it needs to be an experienced one.

[Mike Dean]

They named the video "Ultimate Defender" but half of the highlights has him scoring goals.

Have never heard of him but from that video at least it looks like despite being tall, he has pace and unlike Per, he can actually move.

Also dont see how he fits the "Experienced" Cb that they are looking for. He is a young kid and has spent his entire time at Club Brugge.

But the biggest worry is bad knees. Already two episodes before 22 years of age. Were they impact or NON-impact knee injuries? If they were non-impact knee injuries, then chances are high its going to happen again. It might be a structural thing with him and given that and his height = bad news.

[Zenith]

His first knee injury was an impact injury he picked up against Standard in 2014. It's the one that ruled him out for a year.

The other injury was was Knee Adema; this can be caused by contusion, overload, disease, a previous injury or a previous operation.

Is it something you can predict? No it can happen to any player. Recovery period is usually 2 months, but in some cases it takes a lot longer than that; how quick you recover depends a lot on the condition of the cartilage and the muscle surrounding it.

He's lucky he's still young which allowed him to strengthen is cartilage and muscles around his knee within a relatively short period of time. Recurrence is unlikely as well.

[Mike Dean]

Ok, then definitely someone to take a gamble on. Seems like a good prospect.

Does not check off the experienced box though, the one that both Gazidis and Wenger have talked about.

Another young CB in ADDITION to an experienced one to be added on? Thats a whole bunch of prospects! ( 5th addition after Holding, Bielik, Chambers, and to me even Gab is still a prospect).

Unless one of the young guys has really impressed Wenger and they are not going after experience anymore?

[Dejan]

- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch and also means angel (make of that what you will)

Zenith with a shocker here. Engels means English, Angels would be translated to engelen.

Zenith out.

[Zenith]

- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch and also means angel (make of that what you will)

Zenith with a shocker here. Engels means English, Angels would be translated to engelen.

Zenith out.

Don't know what you're on about tbh



I was referring to the singular form, clearly.

[Zenith]

Ok, then definitely someone to take a gamble on. Seems like a good prospect.

Does not check off the experienced box though, the one that both Gazidis and Wenger have talked about.

Another young CB in ADDITION to an experienced one to be added on? Thats a whole bunch of prospects! ( 5th addition after Holding, Bielik, Chambers, and to me even Gab is still a prospect).

Unless one of the young guys has really impressed Wenger and they are not going after experience anymore?

I think given what has been paid for centre backs in recent years and how very few of them have proven to be worth it, Wenger seems to prefer to get guys below £20m.

Some examples...

Mehdi Benatia - £24m → hasn't lived up to the expectations, shipped off to Juventus on a year-long loan

Marquinhos - £27m → whilst young and talented, still hasn't been able to displace a very average defender like David Luiz from the team - has yet to prove the £27m that was paid for him was warranted

Ellaquim Mangala - £32m → many centre backs that were signed for £5m or less have had a better season than the physically strong Mangala who looks like a loose canon with horrible positional sense

David Luiz - £40m → he's good enough to play for a domestically heavily dominant side like PSG, but has been exposed several times in the CL when up against less negligible opponents

All of these guys make the list of top 8 of most expensive centre backs and so far only Pepe, Rio and T. Silva have lived up to their transfer fee.

[Pudpop]

- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch and also means angel (make of that what you will)

Zenith with a shocker here. Engels means English, Angels would be translated to engelen.

Zenith out.

Think Engels translates into angels from flemish though? It does in afrikaans

[TOP]

Nah it's engelen

Good player but doubt he's ready to start for us. Got too many young CB's already. Need to sell Mert or Gab for this and we never sell.

[Zenith]

- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch and also means angel (make of that what you will)

Zenith with a shocker here. Engels means English, Angels would be translated to engelen.

Zenith out.

Think Engels translates into angels from flemish though? It does in afrikaans

I was referring to the singular form, clearly.

which is Engel

Anyway, I believe Yago is a Bruges fan so he'll be able to give a more detailed opinion about him.

[Cripps]

Big fan of this guy.

[Yago]

- His surname literally translates to English in Dutch and also means angel (make of that what you will)

Zenith with a shocker here. Engels means English, Angels would be translated to engelen.

Zenith out.

Think Engels translates into angels from flemish though? It does in afrikaans

I was referring to the singular form, clearly.

which is Engel

Anyway, I believe Yago is a Bruges fan so he'll be able to give a more detailed opinion about him.

I am.
Love the guy.

He's tall, but not slow either. He's very good on set pieces too, which is always nice. He scored 9 goals in 43 league appearances (total, not season) which I'd say isn't bad at all for a defender. Another one of his strengths is his passing ability on the ball. Hell, I'd say he's a better passer than half the starting DMs playing in Belgium.

Overall he's just a very solid and promising defender. He started out last season injured, and came back in the team in late December. First game was a defeat to Anderlecht, but after that one Bruges went on to win 15 of their next 18 games (and then drawing the last game of the season when they had already won the league). Engels brought much needed stability and confidence at the back, and the team conceded only 13 goals in those 18 games, with Engels nog playing due to a minor injury in the defeats to Genk (4-2) and Anderlecht (1-0).

He was in the Belgium team for the euros, but was ultimately left out because of a late injury (would've played too, as he's better than J. Lukaku - Denayer). Of course, Kompany and Lombaerts were out too...

As Zenith said, the injuries + lack of experience on a high level are the downsides. Belgium's league can't be compared with the prem. On top of that, he sometimes makes a stupid mistake - unneeded yellow card, etc.