Arsenal, Domagoj Vida and Caglar Soyuncu: I just don’t get it

Arsenal are reportedly pursuing Domagoj Vida for £26.9 million. Meanwhile, Caglar Soyuncu is in the process of moving to Leicester City for £20 million. I’ll be honest, I just don’t get it.

Transfer deadline day is here. It is the best day of the footballing calendar, especially this year. Not only is it the time that panic yields pandemonium, but this year, it signals the start of the football season, something that, even with a World Cup to bide me over, I have been waiting for all summer. And Arsenal are reportedly set to make a rather puzzling move.

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Let me lay out the land. Calum Chambers was loaned out to Fulham earlier this week, with the clear reasoning being that the regular Premier League football he will receive is invaluable for his development and career. With Laurent Koscielny absent through injury until December at least, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding were the only depth at the position behind a far from convincing starting pair of Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis. It hinted at an arrival.

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If reports in Turkey are to be believed, and now in England, headlined by this piece in the London Evening Standard on Thursday afternoon, Arsenal are chasing the signing of Besiktas defender Domagoj Vida, the Croatian international impressing at the World Cup and allegedly being offered for £26.9 million. Certainly, if Chambers’ departure is anything to go by, this is a very plausible deal to happen.

There are a number of reasons why I don’t want this to happen. Most problematically, Vida is 29. He’s not the right age to be shelling the best part of £30 million on. Furthermore, he’s never played in a top-five European league — he has made one Bundesliga appearance, but that doesn’t exactly count — and has only come onto the radar because of a World Cup in which he looked decent but far from special.

And while all this is developing, Leicester City are reportedly tying up a £20 million deal for former Arsenal target Caglar Soyuncu. Soyuncu, incidentally, plays in the Bundesliga and is only 22 years of age — he, in fact, will not turn 23 until the season is finished.

This is what I really just don’t understand. Not only are Arsenal pursuing a centre-back that is old, unproven and very plausibly not good enough when they could have a better, younger alternative, but they are spending more in doing so, apparently when the budget is tight and sales will have to be undertaken to fund any signings.

And it’s not as if Soyuncu isn’t highly rated by the club either and they simply think that Vida is the better player. Soyuncu was one of the first centre-halves that Arsenal enquired about in early June. They rated him highly. The only reason an offer was not made is the price. Freiburg demanded £35 million. But that is no longer a problem. Soyuncu is set to move for less than Vida, his alternative recruit.

I just don’t get it. Not at all. It doesn’t make sense. The timeline doesn’t add up. And the only reason I can think for all this is panic. Unfortunately, this time, it will not yield the positive pandemonium we were all hoping for.