Arsenal: Jerome Boateng makes less sense than ever before

Arsenal is being tied to Jerome Boateng yet again, but unlike every other time, this time it is not a good idea and we can do much better.

By now, transfer rumors are coming in hot and fast because there’s nothing else to talk about. So we’re getting a lot of Arsenal links that maybe aren’t the most astute. Chris Smalling, for instance. But we’re getting a ton of links to centerbacks, which is a good sign that the club is poking around for the right solution.

Hence Jerome Boateng, centerback extraordinaire. The Bayern Munich centerback has been linked with the Gunners ad nauseum for about half a decade and up until this point, I have always been for it. He’s Jerome Boateng, after all.

But the theme of the Arsenal transfer rumor these days should not be stop-gap solutions. It should be long-term fixes. After all, if we do everything right, we should be selling at least one stop-gap solution in Sokratis, if not more.

Given that we’re still holding on to David Luiz, though, we don’t have an immediate need for veteran leadership, and once Calum Chambers gets healthy and William Saliba gets into the squad, we won’t have a need for more there either.

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Plus, with the recent link to Chris Richards, who is being likened to a younger Jerome Boateng, I’d much rather see the Gunners pursue him than the old version. This defense is building a foundation for the future and Boateng distracts from that more than he enhances it.

Of course, a lot comes down to what this club does in the transfer window. Rob Holding and Konstantinos Mavropanos are both still on the books as well and factor into the “future” of this defense, yet both could be on the out. If both of them are sold, the importance to sign more talented youngsters goes up a notch. Names like Richards or Bruno Fuchs will go up the priority charts.

The only reason Boateng would see his own stock rising up the charts is if we lose Sokratis and Luiz this coming window, but that isn’t going to happen. Luiz and Boateng are essentially there for the same purpose. We don’t need two of them.

All things considered, the fact that we no longer need someone like Boateng is exciting. It means the defense is headed in the right direction and it’s all happening rather quickly.