So Arsenal had made their first signing of the window a few days back in the form of 20 year old Greek Defender named Konstantinos Mavropanos from Greek side PAS Giannina for a reported fee of £2million.
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You me and millions of others could be forgiven for asking Konstantinos who so we have made a player profile about our news Greek Boy and decided to compile all the pieces of information that we could find about him in order to rate him as a player and judge the paltry sum paid for this guy in the same window where liverpool have spend some 35 times this to sign VVD from Southampton with what we are realizing now is the Coutinho money.
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Welcome to Arsenal, Konstantinos 🔴 https://t.co/riLPiqxyX4
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 4, 2018
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Konstantinos Mavropanos :
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Our brand new Greek Defender signed from Greek side PAS Giannina is definitely not expected to feature for the Gunners this season and will instead be loaned to another club in one of the top European leagues. From what we are hearing from a number of reports is that he will be loaned off too any Bundesliga side most likely Werder Bremen FC. Kind of like what Takuma Asano is doing there by developing his footing in one of Europes finest leagues and playing for a team where every single point earned matters more than life itself.
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The 20-year-old centre-back made his senior debut in April and has 16 appearances in the Greek Superleague while also scoring three goals during that time.
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So how good is he acutally, Well Greek Football Journalist George Tsitsonis was speaking to Sky Sports after his transfer was announced and here is what he had to say about the player :
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[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Mavropanos is highly regarded in Greece in so far as he is a young defender with great potential. He is considered one of the biggest talents in the Greek game.[spacer height=”20px”]
His rise to prominence is similar to that of Panagiotis Retsos, a 19-year-old who broke the Greek transfer record last summer with a move to Bayer Leverkusen from Olympiakos. [spacer height=”20px”] Mavropanos has been superb this season for PAS in the Greek Super League. They are a smaller, regional club, but he has begun to make a name for himself with his quality displays. He has been one of the league’s top defenders this season. His performances had led to interest from Olympiakos and AEK Athens. [/perfectpullquote]
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Strengths and Weaknesses :
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Mavropanos’ main strengths are his dynamic play, sense of positioning and mainly his ball-winning capabilities and aerial prowess which will certainly be deeply helped by his 6 ft 4 inches height which will serve him well in England. He has it in him to become a real asset for the team due to his built and structure alone.
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The 20-year-old is strong and suited to a physical style of play. He has proven to be a defender who does not make a lot of mistakes in possession or in terms of positioning or one-on-one defending.[spacer height=”30px”]
Well sense of play and chemistry with the team can be build gradually but a natural sense of positioning or calmness under pressure is god gifted and judging by the reports he certainly possesses them and is not short of confidence either.
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In a season where Arsenal have suffered in the league due to injuries to Skhodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal all three of our primary starting centrebacks, a new centreback is certainly needed given the age of latter two. Even though their absence and nagging injuries have left Arsenal 6th in table Winner is offering great odds on Arsenal to finish the season in the top 6 at 1/50 or even 27/20 for the top 4. In fact an outright win would return 100/1. You can alternatively check out the latest Arsenal odds here .
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Stathis Tavlaridis only Greek player to ever play for Arsenal seemed pretty excited about this young kid and has greatly backed him to be a success in England claiming that he has the whole package to become a superstar here with his talent, skill, personality and quality to carve out a niche for him in this extremely competitive squad.
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Speaking to Goal, Here is what Stathis Tavlaridis had to say about his young compatriot who had just signed for Arsenal :
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[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “He’s a very good player with a big future ahead of him,” [spacer height=”20px”] “But the most important thing for me is to have a good character and be a humble person if you want to build a long career. Talent is not the only important thing, good character is too. [spacer height=”20px”] “Mavropanos has the whole package to have a very successful career. I am sure he will go on to play for the first team because he has the personality and quality to make it.” [/perfectpullquote]
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Relating from his experience of playing in a team that featured the likes of Henry, Viera, Adams, Keown, Toure and Campbell among all others he certainly is best positioned to advice a fellow countryman making a huge step from his hometown club to one that is one of the biggest in the world just like he did during his time.
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Meanwhile he had a couple of training sessions with the club already and here is a few pictures which show our new boy completely unaffected by the cold and playing in scantily protected wears whereas Mesut Ozil and company seem like bracing themselves for a blizzard
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http://Embed from Getty Images
http://Embed from Getty Images
http://Embed from Getty Images
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Well he does look pretty comfortable but one person who is yet to get completely comfortable with everything that happening this season is Arsene Wenger who has admitted that he is still acclimatizing to the changes backroom and his new advisor and head of the scouting network Sven Mislintant who had arrived from Borussia Dortmund to take over from the previous chief scout Riley, is yet to gel together in his new setup completely and is yet to meet all the members of the scouting department and pass on his instructions to them yet.
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However Arsene Did point out that our new Greek defender was indeed spotted by Sven and it was with his advice that Arsenal have signed him . Is this the first of the gems to be unearthed by Sven for Arsenal, only time will tell.
