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#2 Rejuvenate the centre-back position
Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papasthatopoulos are all over 30 years old. While Monreal’s contract is running out at the end of this season, Koscielny, the team's captain, has missed 26 games due to injury over the last two campaigns. These three players were the starters in the last few games and will need to be replaced over the next couple of seasons.
The other defending options are Shkodran Mustafi, who is too error-prone for a top-class-option, and Konstantinos Mavropanos, a young Greek, who has been ravaged by injury this season, after a promising start to his Premier League career, towards the end of Wenger's reign.
Rob Holding is definitely one to keep an eye on, after his sparkling performances at the start of the season. It was cruel that the 23-year-old Englishman's season had to be cut short by the serious injury he suffered in November.
To be a serious threat in the 2019-20 season, Arsenal has to do some transfer business in this position. While Monreal will leave the team on a free, Mustafi probably will bring some good money to the north of London. This would leave them with just four options in Koscielny, Sokratis, Holding and Mavropanos.
One of the players coming into the squad should be proven enough to start right from the beginning. A man who is strong in the air and consistent in his tackling, like Willy Orban, Mattias Ginter or James Tarkowski. While the two Bundesliga stars are very good on the ball as well, the English international Tarkowski is already Premier League-proven.
All those suggestions would also fit the rather small budget of reported £40 million. Whereas the Gladbach player could be leaving his club for £21.5 million, Orban is only worth £11.5 million. Tarkowski is obviously also quite expensive due to him being English, at £20.5 million.
The other transfer has to be a young talent, who is ready to start some games in either the league or Europe. Three shooting stars that come to my mind are Ibrahima Konaté, Jan Bednarek and Joachim Andersen.
Konaté is a French man, only 19 years old and an undisputed starter for Leipzig. The only issue here is his price tag of around £38 million. Bednarek already starts in the Premier League for a Southampton squad that already had the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Toby Alderweireld. £14 million is also a quite cheap amount for the talent he is.
The last one, Andersen, is playing his breakthrough season for Sampdoria in Italy, where he is valued at £17 million. What makes those three defenders particularly interesting is their strong build up ability and security on the ball.
