Arsenal: Konstantinos Mavropanos does not negate current prospects

Arsenal have reportedly agreed to the £1.8 million signing of Konstantinos Mavropanos. His signing, though, does not negate the current prospects already in the squad.

Arsenal have completed their first signing of the January transfer window. I know, I wasn’t expecting such decisive action either. But that is nonetheless exactly what has happened. Perhaps, as the rumours suggest, it is the influence of Sven Mislintat, Borussia Dortmund’s former chief scout who was hired earlier in the season.

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The player is little known. Konstantinos Mavropanos is his name, which is not all that easy to pronounce. He is a 20-year-old centre-half who has established himself as one of the more highly-thought-of young defenders in the Greek league. And, to be honest, that is all that I know of him — I have had the chance, today, to watch what I can of him, but it is limited, to say the least.

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The fee is reported to be £1.8 million, which is fairly insignificant in the current climate, and it is thought that he will sign a long-term deal with the club. It is also expected that he will spend the rest of the season on loan, not making the move to North London until the summer.

And that is significant. It would be easy to assume that, because of his age and his position, that Mavropanos has come in to challenge the likes of Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Krystian Bielik. And to some extent, that is true. He has come to challenge them. But he has not arrived to replace them. He is not necessarily an improvement on any of them. He is simply another shot in the dark.

That is the key to acquiring young players is to sign a lot of them. It seems a little simple, but it is the most important thing to do. And the reasoning is equally as simple: Given the volatile nature of footballing development, the luck that is required to make the jump from prospective youngster to fully-fledged starter, the number of things that could go wrong that are often beyond the control of the player or the manager or the club, it makes sense to have as many tickets to the lottery as possible.

It’s as simple as a game of probabilities. And that is what Arsenal are doing here. They are giving Arsene Wenger a number of young centre-halves to groom and develop. And if just one progresses into the player that is hoped of him, then, even if every other player is released on a free having failed to develop, it would still be considered a wise investment.

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Now, I do not know if that player will be Chambers, Holding, Bielik, Mavropanos or none of them. But Arsenal have given themselves another roll of the dice, and I am all for it.