Arsenal: Joachim Andersen the perfect target in current conditions

Arsenal are reportedly making a move Sampdoria centre-half Joachim Andersen. Here is why he is the perfect target in the current conditions.

Arsenal signed Greek international Sokratis last season to provide an immediate improvement to their centre-half options. The Borussia Dortmund defender was seen as an experienced, capable and affordable target who could come into the team and start from day one. He was not — and is not — a world-class player, but he was deemed better than what was at the club.

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The thinking was clear, and made some, though not complete, sense: to steady the biggest weakness of the team in Unai Emery’s first season at the helm, providing him with a foundation to build off in the hope that Sokratis could bring back Champions League football.

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But now, a year later, the focus of recruitment has shifted. The need for instantaneous impacts is still present, but there is now the opportunity to build with a longer-term perspective in mind, focusing on securing players that can both contribute for many years and have resale value, should it come to it. This is where Sokratis does not make much sense. But there is another who does, one who the Gunners are reportedly targetting hard.

Sampdoria centre-half Joachim Andersen is rumoured to have attracted interest from a myriad of the best clubs throughout Europe. But it is apparently Arsenal that stand at the front of the queue, the Gunners allegedly making a near £50 million double offer for Andersen and his midfield teammate Dennis Praet. That should be comforting news for fans.

Andersen is the ideal type of centre-half that the club should be targetting — for a nice summary of his pros and cons, see this piece from Football Whispers. Talented, 23 years of age, relatively cheap given his natural ability, his age and the recent explosion in the transfer market, and at a key position of need.

While I would be hesitant to give my opinion on just how good or bad a player Andersen, simply because I have not watched enough of him to do so, what I can say is that he is the perfect profile of potential signing that Arsenal should be chasing this summer. And this is where the Sokratis comparison from last season really illustrates the ideal nature of this potential move.

Where Sokratis was signed to provide immediate improvement to the centre-back position, the position that was viewed as the biggest weakness of the squad by Emery and his coaching staff last summer, Andersen is a player that the defence can be built around for the best part of a decade. He offers both short-term relief and long-term hope.

Whether a true move materialises or not, we will have to wait and see. But given the shortcomings of the squad, the financial restrictions of the club, and the rebuild aims of Emery, he is the perfect type of target to pursue.