Arsenal: Jose Gimenez a chore, but checks off all the boxes

Arsenal’s search for defensive help may be solved by the expensive Jose Gimenez. It is going to be a chore and a half to sign him, but he’s the ideal.

It’s been established that Arsenal’s defensive situation is probably not solvable by one signing. Just like how Virgil van Dijk has not solved all of Liverpool’s defensive woes. It’s a matter of changing up the system, but in order to do that, you do need the right personnel to make the system work.

Right now, the Gunners don’t have a sit-back, last-guy-on-defense kind of centerback. They haven’t since Per Mertesacker. Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi and Calum Chambers are all in-your-face, give-me-the-ball-now kind of defenders.

Their aggression can lead to some fantastic plays or some incredibly bone-headed ones. What made Koscielny so great was that he had Mertesacker in behind to sweep up his mistakes.

Jose Gimenez may well be the answer to this. While the Uruguayan closes down the ball quick, he does not do so recklessly and he is often the last defender, which is certainly something we should be looking for, arguably first and foremost.

He doesn’t hesitate in his decision making. He seems to instinctively know if he can make it to the ball and gets it right more times than not. If he can’t, he lets the pressure come to him. and goes from there.

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It’s also incredibly important that he is young. This defensive core has gotten incredibly old over the years, with just Shkodran Mustafi as the young anchor. We still have hopes in a charging Calum Chambers and a still-promising Rob Holding. But while I endorse the hell out of Chambers, banking on the future of the defense based solely on Mustafi, Chambers, and the hopes of Holding is less than stable.

Enter Gimenez. 23 years old, the understudy to the renowned Diego Godin and struggling to find playing time at Atletico Madrid. He has only played 1100 minutes with the Spanish defensive juggernaut, which, given how long he has been nipping at the heels of the starting XI, can’t possibly be enough for him.

Hence the link that Arsenal now have to him. Why is this a chore? Because he is going to cost upwards of £60m, which would, obviously, break another Arsenal record. But put side-by-side with Manchester City, that’s how much they spent on Laporte, all in the hopes of landing a future superstar.

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Ideally, this won’t be as much of a chore as I fear it will, because ideally the financial barriers are passing us by. Gimenez is a solution, and all solutions should be embraced.

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