Despite all the talk of a new approach and a lot of money to spend, Arsenal haven’t done anything meaningful this summer, but turning their attention to Kurt Zouma of Satin-Etienne might change all of that.
The 18-year old centre back has just completed a fantastic tournament with the U-20 French side, winning the world championship against Uruguay in Turkey. Now that he’s back from his summer tournament, it might mean that he’ll have more time to attend to his club business, and the number of teams attempting to sign him.
Arsenal aren’t alone in the chase after Zouma – Chelsea have been mentioned as an interested party, and it seems that half of Europe has been linked with the player at one point or the other. He appeared 18 times last season for his club, which he has been a part of since the age of 15. He is signed until 2017, which means that it will take a lot more than his €7 million market evaluation to sign him, especially with so many teams after him.
After the success of Varane in Real Madrid, being able to find himself in the starting lineup before his teenage years are over, Zouma is no longer considered a prospect for the future, but rather as someone who can start for a top club right away.
While Arsenal seemed to find some defensive balance at the end of last season with Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, there’s need for at least one more quality centre back with Thomas Vermaelen continuing to disappoint over the last couple of seasons. Mertesacker himself has turned out to be the weak link in the duo, and if Zouma does continue to improve in huge strides like he has for the last couple of seasons, spending a lot of money on him isn’t such a bad way to improve your defensive unit.