Arsenal: How can Calum Chambers possibly be called “dead wood”?

Arsenal are gearing up for a summer garage sale, but to lump in Calum Chamber as “dead wood” is so stupid I can’t even bear it.

There aren’t a lot of Arsenal players that I am clinging to this summer. Granit Xhaka, obviously. The guys we bought last summer. Some young guys. Alexandre Lacazette. But I am also clinging to Calum Chambers, and you should be too.

What I don’t get is how fans continue to discredit Chambers when they’ve seen so little of him. They assume that since he hasn’t been trusted in the first team yet, that he must therefore not be up to scratch, but when you look at what he did at Boro, and when you look at what he’s doing at Fulham, you see a dynamic, young player with defensive chops and some excellent ball-handling traits for a centerback, who has showcased so much growth over the past few years, as he’s grown from rightback, to defensive midfield, to centerback.

The consensus is still that he is going to be best at centerback, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but one of the areas that we need the most help is at centerback. And while we should absolutely be picky, Chambers has passed every test handed to him.

Regardless of the successful loans to Boro and Fulham, Chambers passed the first team test of being consistently used in a back two with Konstantinos Mavropanos at the tail-end of last year. they were both great in the role, and I even considered that they’d be our starting pairing going into the new season.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Not only was that wrong, but they’ve both been dumped and pushed away from the club, with at least Chambers’ future now in question.

I’m not a fan. In a questionable summer, where funds are going to be strained and internal solutions should be given every chance in the world to be the solutions they can be so we don’t have to spend money on it elsewhere.

And didn’t Chambers just sign a new deal? So if we are going to sell him, which we shouldn’t, then we better be getting more than we asked for him last summer, which was apparently £20m.

He is a versatile, young defender that has shown tremendous growth, and thus should continue to grow, and that’s the exact type of defender that the Gunners should be on the market for, not adding to the market of.