Arsenal: Jeremy Mathieu Such A Wenger Signing

Arsenal’s search for a defender is about to take on a very Wenger-like persona if indeed the solution is Jeremy Mathieu. It could be worse.

Arsene Wenger has developed a very palpable transfer persona in two decades with Arsenal. The big name, long term, high priced signings do not exist. They have been replaced by the slick, high risk, low price, short term signings.

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Enter the latest example: Jeremy Mathieu.

Never before has there been more of a “I don’t want to spend a lot of money or address the true issue” signing by Arsene Wenger, assuming the move goes through. At 32 years old, Jeremy Mathieu is so far over the hill that he could give Per Mertesacker a run for his money.

Mathieu is the true definition of a stopgap solution. It reminds me of Kim Kallstrom, only (hopefully) without the broken back. Wenger waited to long to address the actual issue, which in this case was a lack of defensive depth, so he went with someone he knew he could get, wouldn’t produce an abundance of stress, had proven quality and no more than a year of relevance.

Arsenal needed defensive help even before Mertesacker and Gabriel went down with the usual injuries. A defense composed of Koscielny, the BFG and Gabriel is hardly reliable and they proved that last year. Another quality option to partner Gabriel for the long haul was needed and it didn’t look like Calum Chambers was ready yet.

So Wenger bought Rob Holding. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great signing and I think the world of the kid. But he’s not ready. Just like Calum Chambers wasn’t ready when Wenger bought him.

Still, Holding and Chambers have been partnering in the center of defense all preseason and it hasn’t looked awful. Premier League quality? No. But not awful.

Here we are, on the day before a new season gets underway, and Arsenal has only Holding and Chambers healthy for opening day against Liverpool. Again, the problem could have been solved so long ago if Wenger had identified the problem and addressed it earlier.

But he didn’t, and now that Mustafi is looking to cost a completely reasonable amount of money, he is looking to other options.

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Let me add a side note here – Mathieu is a smart signing, I do think that. He’s a big physical defender that, while he has only played in La Liga, has obvious quality. But is he the solution to Arsenal’s defensive problems? Absolutely not.

The main benefit to Mathieu is that it gives Chambers and Holding a road paved in gold to being starting defensive partners down the road. But at some point Wenger has to stop coddling his young players. If a better option is out there, like Mustafi, who is only 24, buy the guy and let the internal competition work like it is supposed to.

The point of internal competition is to improve the team and the players. It doesn’t work if you baby these players by not providing actual competition.

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All that being said, Mathieu is a good defender. If it happens, at least we have another defender.