Arsenal: Benjamin Pavard is Caglar Soyuncu deja-vu

Arsenal are now being linked with a move for French defender Benjamin Pavard. The talented centre-half is just giving me deja-vu with Caglar Soyuncu however.

Arsenal need centre-half help. I don’t think that there are many people who would disagree with that statement, although such agreement may differ slightly to the extent of the help required.

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Henry, of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast, for instance, is keen to state that while investment is required, it must be in a player/s that is are substantially better than what is currently at the club. So, for him, the links to Borussia Dortmund centre-half Sokratis are a little muddling — Sokratis, in Henry’s view, is not much better than Calum Chambers or Konstantinos Mavropanos.

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In the same vein, the links with young Freiburg defender Caglar Soyuncu are also a little troubling. While he is younger than Sokratis, he is more expensive and does not, at least from a limited, external perspective, seem like a substantial upgrade on the younger defenders that Arsenal already have in their squad. It is a fair stance to hold. And now the very same scenario is playing over again.

The latest young defender to be linked with a move to north London is Frenchman Benjamin Pavard, who is also currently plying his trade in the Bundesliga, this time at Stuttgart. The 22-year-old played every minute of Stuttgart’s league campaign last season and was named to an extremely strong French squad for the upcoming World Cup, though Laurent Koscielny’s ruptured Achilles may have played a part in that decision. Nevertheless, he is highly rated across Europe and will reportedly cost in the same kind of region as Soyuncu, £30-40 million.

I have never seen either Soyncu or Pavard play for even one minute of football. I am merely basing my opinions on what I read about the pair from analysts and sources that I trust. But the two do seem very similar indeed.

They’re both young. They both play for a middling Bundesliga side. They will both cost around the same amount. They both offer a future at the position for the next decade. They are both off to the World Cup with their respective nations. They are both attracting interest from around the world.

So when I read reports about the Gunners possibly considering a move for Pavard, my mind just drifts to Soyuncu. The two are extremely comparable targets in many ways. There must, then, be a judgement call from someone at the club regarding the respective qualities and utilities of these two players. Maybe it’s Sven Mislintat or Ivan Gazidis or even Unai Emery.

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But, at this early stage, both seem like the same kind of target. I’m not really sure what that means for the future, however.