Arsenal: Shkodran Mustafi sale makes as much sense as it used to

Arsenal were strongly linked to a sale of Shkodran Mustafi to Inter Milan in the summer, but with rumors of a sale re-emerging, the skepticism needs to re-emerge as well.

Arsenal appeared to be on the brink of selling Shkodran Mustafi to Inter over the summer, a sale that would have been infuriating and baffling. Arsene Wenger and Mustafi have both downplayed those rumors but the lingering fact remains that it damn well might have happened.

Perhaps tabloids knew the overall sense of dread and are just kicking up dust again, or maybe the Gunners really are determined to part with Mustafi, because rumors are back that he could leave for Juventus in the summer, as the Turin side have pegged him as the man to replace a never-healthy Benedikt Howedes.

Mustafi has not ironed out 100% of his problems yet, but the difference between when he is on the pitch and when he is not is stark. Aside from the Manchester United debacle, so long as he was playing, only one goal had been allowed.

There’s no masking that stat. Mustafi is the perfect communicator for the center of that back three, something we do not have on staff without him.

As such, these new sale rumors need to be met with the same raised eyebrows as before. Or, if you’re like me, the same nervousness because it felt so real over the summer. But make no doubt about it, selling him is one of the dumbest things that Wenger could do.

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Mustafi is the only defender that the Gunners have that is in his prime and on the rise. He is the only player they have, as mentioned, who communicates well enough to organize that defense. Every other defender in the first team picture is over 30 and either retiring or losing effectiveness rather quickly.

So if Mustafi is sold, the Gunners will be left with an and centerback and an aged re-purposed left back, and then two young, inexperienced English centerbacks.

That’s dumb. I don’t need to tell you that. It’s reckless and it’s pointless. Mustafi, in my estimation, is quickly becoming the best defender on the books here at Arsenal, so to sell him would have to merit an opposite move along the magnitude of Virgil van Dijk. But even then, you’re walking a line that doesn’t need to be walked.

A dangerous line reminiscent of when Wenger tried to squeeze by with just three centerbacks, one of which, Thomas Vermaelen, was always hurt.

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I would say disregard these rumors, but they were so real in the summer that I can’t help but have a bit of nerves.

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