Arsenal: No one is losing sleep over Sokratis stalling

Arsenal have yet to finalize the expected transfer for Sokratis, but it’s not like this is a major pitfall. There are plenty of other options.

Arsenal were all set to lock up Sokratis and make him the second official signing of the summer. But then Bernd Leno happened and, two weeks later, we still haven’t gotten official confirmation that the Greek centerback is a Gunner.

According to Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc, there’s a reason why this official confirmation hasn’t happened yet. That reason being that “things are not finalized yet.”

The move was reported at £16m, with Sokratis set to be a budget fix to the defensive woes that the Gunners experienced all of last year, so it would certainly be a wrench in the master plan if this were to fall through.

But it would be a very tiny wrench, the kind that you always seem to lose, because it’s not really that important.

While we all counted Sokratis as in the bag, and according to so many different sources, including insinuations by Zorc himself, he is still going to be completing the move in all likelihood. But in the meantime, no one is losing any sleep.

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There are too many other, more important deals to stress about. Gelson Martins is slipping through our fingers, Lucas Torreira has yet to be announced – these are the types of signings that most people are spending their every minute thinking about.

Sokratis is a tertiary figure. That’s no insult to him. It’s just to say that, as it stands, quantity of personnel is not the problem on the defense. In fact, it is far from the problem.

With so many young, talented centerbacks, I’m still not even sure how long Sokratis would hold down that starting role, barring any guarantees, before he was potentially uprooted by a young up-and-comer.

That’s how things should be, anyway.

In the meantime, his veteran presence is something to covet, given the injury to Laurent Koscielny, but even then, it is replaceable. Medhi Benatia, for instance, has been linked for a very similar fee and he has a bit more experience than Sokratis, as he has played for both Juventus and Bayern Munich, so he is accustomed to winning things.

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This deal will still go through. I think we all know that. It would be shocking if it didn’t. But it also wouldn’t be catastrophic if it didn’t.

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