Arsenal: Yes, Sokratis Papastathapoulos age is concerning

Arsenal have officially completed the signing of Sokratis Papastathapoulos. One thing that is concerning me, however, is his age. The defender is 30 years old. For how long will he actually be at his best?

It’s finally official. A transfer that has been a month in the making, almost shunned into the shadows as everything was completed without actually being completed, has finally finished: Arsenal have signed Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos for a fee believed to be in the region of £16-18 million.

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Because this has been a slow-burning signing, much has already been said about the transfer, the pros and cons of Sokratis’ style, the attributes that he will bring to the defence, the potential ramifications that he will on the players that already at the club. But there is one thing that I am still not sure I have fully explained my stance on: his age.

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Sokratis turned 30 in June. It is not usual for Arsenal to sign players the wrong side of that dreaded 30 mark, and now, just a month into the post-Arsene Wenger era, they have already signed two. That is not a coincidence. Add to the additions of Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner, who is 34, the now 29-year-old Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who were signed in January, and there is a very clear age profile that the Gunners have targeted.

Now, I am all for Sven Mislintat trying to add experience to this squad. There has been a severe lack of leadership, character and game-understanding for many years, and all of these players boast a wealth of domestic, European and international experience that will be invaluable in the coming seasons. But it does not come without compromise.

How many of Sokratis’ best years will Arsenal actually get? Three? Even that might be ambitious. Laurent Koscielny’s powers certainly started to diminish last season when he was 32; Per Mertesacker was before that at 31 two years ago. That would mean Sokratis would only be able to give a year or two of his best.

It is a very difficult question, one that is forecasting a very uncertain and ambiguous future. But it still portrays the problem with signing a 30-year-old. There is a limited reward to be reaped, there is very little sell-on value whatsoever, which was always Wenger’s gripe with signing older players, and the problem that they solve only arises a couple of years later anyway. They are not a permanent solution; they are a patch.

And that is what Sokratis is at centre-half, a patch, a plaster stretching over the problem, fraying at the ends trying to hold everything together. Perhaps Unai Emery and co. believe that Calum Chambers or Rob Holding or Konstantinos Mavropanos can be the long-term solution, but they’re just not ready yet and they need a couple more years in a back-up role before they are thrust into the starting line-up. In that sense, the Sokratis shows some rationale.

Next: Arsenal: 3 players impacted by Sokratis signing

But there is no guarantee that any of those players will ever be good enough to succeed Sokratis. If they aren’t good enough now, will they ever be good enough? How much better can Chambers be at 25? I don’t know the answer, but one thing is certain, Sokratis, at 30 years of age, is not a long-term answer to the centre-half problem, and that is a little concerning.