Arsenal: Caglar Soyuncu turning into the curiosity of the summer

Arsenal look to be the first-choice destination of Caglar Soyuncu, which is great, but given the likelihood, isn’t the curiosity, well, curious?

Arsenal’s defense was a wreck and a half last year, so it’s hard to look at any potential solutions with an upturned nose. I’m not all that excited about Sokratis, but I’m willing to try anything that could potential fix the trainwreck that was last year.

That said, I’m not entirely sure where Caglar Soyuncu fits. I’m over the moon excited about him for obvious reasons – namely because Sven Mislintat likes him so much, but that doesn’t answer the needling questions.

He is shaping into quite the transfer curiosity. With most, if not all, other transfer targets and links, I can see the logic. Even with Ever Banega. But despite the excitement, there isn’t a lot of logic that goes into the Soyuncu links.

Think about it – £35m for a young Bundesliga 2 defender? That’s madness on the surface. Complete and utter madness.

Yet here is Soyuncu, talking about how Arsenal are the ideal destination and how he is turning down other offers, undoubtedly in the hopes that the Emirates turns into his next home.

So again I ask – where does he fit in?

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Granted, we don’t know how the rest of the transfer window is going to shape up. We don’t know who is going to be sold. But as it stands, there are a lot of bodies in the defensive corps, many of whom are quite capable.

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect Soyuncu to go straight into the starting XI. Which isn’t to say that he loses any value, but when you look at who else the Gunners already have in the ranks – Konstantinos Mavropanos, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers – these are guys that have earned the right to have their opportunity given to them.

None have “failed” in the sense that they don’t deserve anything. They are all capable in their own right.

Then you have the senior guys with the addition of Sokratis, all of whom have experience that Soyuncu doesn’t have.

So Soyuncu has the price tag to sit with the senior guys, but the experience to sit beneath the younger guys. Which is again where this question comes up – where exactly does he fit in?

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This all comes down to Mislintat’s trust in him. It’s looking like a very real possibility for a very expensive price tag. I’m curious to see where that puts him in the team spectrum. We should be thrilled to land this lad, but that doesn’t excuse the questions.

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