Thomas Hein
Sokratis Papastathopoulos could have signed for Manchester United but chose to move to Arsenal, according to his father Charalambos Papastathopoulos.
The Borussia Dortmund defender could become Unai Emery’s second signing as Arsenal boss but it could all have been different, according to Charalambos.
While speaking to Greek radio station Sport24 (h/t The Express), the player’s father said:
“There was interest from United but he had to wait until July for them.
“United have a very good relationship with Dortmund, the teams talked but Sokratis chose to go to Arsenal.”
Charalambos also added that the player had been in contact with Arsenal for two years but did not move back then. The senior Papastathopoulos also went on to add:
“He is going to a higher level, the world’s most competitive league and I believe he will do very well.”
Charalambos also added that his son is happy going to England and that he would be looking to seal the move soon. The reason why Sokratis moved was also revealed by his father. It was due to the fact that he was in the last year of his contract.
The 29-year-old defender could cost £17m and that seems like a bargain. But it seems that Arsenal have beaten us to the race for the Greek defender.
We did sign Shinji Kagawa from Dortmund a few years ago and possibly could have got the defender too but as the player’s father says, maybe the timeline of having to wait until July was a bit too long for Sokratis and hence he made the decision to move to The Emirates. Hopefully, this will not turn out to be a big loss for us and we too end up signing a central defender this summer.
