Why Arsenal have to do everything they can to keep this £15m man:

At the moment, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker’s roles at Arsenal are more or less unassailable. They’re the Gunners first choice centre-back pairing and they’re unlikely to be torn apart any time soon.

I guess conceding just 1 goal in your last 11 home games will do wonders for your reputation. Indeed, it’s a minor miracle that Arsenal, a team with a reputation for being easy to bully and defensively slack, currently have one of the best defensive records in the Premier League.

The Frenchman, Koscielny, is lightning quick along the ground and isn’t afraid of a last ditch tackle. That makes him a perfect match for the more measured, tactically astute Per Mertesacker.

Unfortunately, their rise to prominence has led to the Gunners third-choice centre-back, Thomas Vermaelen getting put out to pasture. He may be the club’s captain, but this will provide him with little solace when he’s not getting any game time.

Of course, this being a World Cup year, there’s been plenty of speculation regarding his future. Take, for instance, The Mirror‘s claim that Vermaelen has become a major transfer target for Russian club Zenit St Petersburg.

And with the Russian transfer window still open for the next two weeks, Arsenal fans may be a little worried that the big-spending Russians could snap up their only top quality reserve defender.

Relying on the likes of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker is all well and good, but what happens if one of them picks up a long-term injury or gets suspended? The Gunners are smack-bang in the middle of a tough period of games and can’t afford to lose anybody at this moment in time.

The Mirror mention that the Russians may be willing to shell out as much as £15m for the Belgian. That’s a decent sum of money for a player who hasn’t been playing regular football for a while.

But that figure doesn’t account for what it could cost the Gunners to have just two quality centre-backs in the squad. I hope that Arsene Wenger plays this one smart and tells Zenit where to go. Arsenal’s season may just depend on it.

What’s your take? Should the Gunners wave goodbye to Thomas Vermaelen?

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