Arsenal and Pape Abou Cisse: You had me at ‘centerback’

Arsenal’s defense needs something. Anything. So while we don’t know much about Pape Abou Cisse, the fact that he is a centerback makes him perfect.

Arsenal are now linked with a remarkably cheap £10m move for hulking Senegalese centerback Pape Abou Cisse. No, he’s not Kalidou Koulibaly, but the association is enough to make me excited that we’re linked to the 23-year-old, not to mention the fact that he’s… a centerback.

Despite the pending deal Arsenal are brewing for William Saliba, this defense still remains a wide open door. Shkodran Mustafi is still screwing the pooch, Laurent Koscielny is being a diva, and that means that we have Sokratis, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding (when he gets healthy).

There are way too many unanswered questions that we’re hoping to solve without any additional resources and it doesn’t feel good. So in steps a 23-year-old defender that few have heard of, who plays of Olympiakos and would only cost £10m and I’m just like… yeah, okay. Sign him up.

Sure, we want to be selective. We want to make sure that whoever we get is the right player and not just another Mustafi. But at the same time, after seeing Joachim Andersen fall to Lyon, and the few rumors that have followed, it’s safe to say that we might be being too selective.

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I won’t lie, I haven’t seen much of Pape Abou Cisse. At the AFCON, he’s been stuck behind Koulibaly and Salif Sane in that resolute Senegalese defense. But he’s the heir apparent to these two, and that counts for something.

It counts for the Gunners trying to get a guy before he makes that big step into the world spectrum. The opportunity will be there for Pape Abou Cisse before much longer, and when that comes around, his price is going to blow up.

And he’s supposedly tagged to be ready for a first team role with the Gunners, so you don’t have to convince me any more than that. Clearly he’s been positively evaluated, he has all the physical attributes and he’s not a prospect anymore, so the worst we can do is invest a small amount of money in him and see how he fits.

Besides, as I keep saying in reference to Matteo Guendouzi (and Gabriel Martinelli), being relatively unknown is perfectly okay these days. It’s worked before and there’s no reason why it couldn’t work again.