Arsenal: Kostas Manolas an unintended conversation starter

Arsenal were ruled out of the Kostas Manolas chase and many forgot about him, but the Greek connection is kicking up dust – is it worth talking about?

Arsenal‘s defense likely has all the solutions they are going to get. With the additions of Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner and the copious young defenders eager for an opportunity, it’s unlikely that they’ll find a need for many others.

That said, from the dust rises Kostas Manolas, the Greek defender that we were originally linked to before Sven Mislintat came in and said “hold up, I know a Greek defender we can actually get.”

And get him we did. Sokratis is now a Gooner, which, as mentioned, set this defense up in a position of some fortitude, given all the options they now boast.

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However, Manolas, a long-time Arsenal target, has admitted that he would like to link up with his international team mate Sokratis at some point in the future. Of course, this is something that players say quite often, and it rarely ever happens, but it can’t be classified as exactly nothing, can it?

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No, it can’t.

Manolas is going to leave Roma at some point. His ambitions seem to pull him towards a bigger league, so why not aim for the biggest – the Premier League.

He’s been sweet-talking potentially landing at Manchester United, but then again, United were also in on Sokratis, so it’s hard to say who will win out in the end, assuming this is even a race.

As it stands, the Gunners won’t be in on Manolas. There is a such thing as too much, and Manolas would be just that. Still, if Manolas remains where he is for one more season, then there is always that potential that next year, if things don’t pan out with our current wealth of defensive options, Manolas then emerges as the man for the job.

A trifecta of Greek defenders would hardly seem like a focal point of what the Gunners would normally target, but this is what Mislintat does. He finds solutions in lesser known-places and, without wanting to naysay the Greeks too much, it would be a twist to get the bulk of this defense from there.

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Still, for right now, let’s let the dust settle and go from there.