Arsenal’s John Stones Request

What Would John Stones Offer Arsenal?

At this point, we can only hypothesise about what Stones could offer any side in the country, let alone Arsenal, since he’s been so astoundingly bad for the past 18 months.

Casting our minds back to a time where he wasn’t hopelessly error prone, the reason City forked out such a whopping fee to bring him to Manchester was his ball-playing ability.

Under the tutelage of former Toffees boss Roberto Martinez, the Spaniard sought to implement a different brand of football at Goodison Park, one that was built of progression through the thirds, starting with the goalkeeper.

With Stones now tasked with becoming the basis for most attacks, he flourished under the added responsibility with his calm demeanour on the ball and competent range of pass. Still capable of the occasional howler, it wasn’t felt like a damaging trait given his age and was seen as something that could be ironed out at an elite side such as City.

Since, those mistakes filtered their way back into his game along with some diabolical positioning, with millions of pounds injected into the side to find a more suitable option in the team than Stones.

If the rumours are to be believed then Arteta hasn’t been put off by the errors, and if he can rediscover the composed, progressive Stones of yesteryear and banish the mistake-strewn modern variation, he’d be a superb fit on the right side of defence next to Gabriel.

It would require an immense amount of work, not to mention finance.