Report: Per Mertesacker to be offered new 3 year contract

Arsenal are ready to offer a new three year contract to German defender Per Mertesacker, according to reports in Daily Mirror.

The 29-year-old joined the Gunners in 2011 and will enter the final year of his current deal next season. The defender has been in inspired form helping the club to the top of the table and in the process ousting club captain Thomas Vermaelen from the lineup after forming a formidable partnership with Laurent Koscielny.

The report suggests that manager Arsene Wenger has been suitably impressed by the German defender over the past nine months and is keen on tying him down to a new three year deal which will in all likeliness keep him at the Emirates for the rest of his career. It is also believed that with a plethora of German stars in the team, the former Werder Bremen man feels at home at the Emirates and would be happy to remain at the club.

In 2011 when Mertesacker signed from Werder Bremen for £9.9 million, it was not at all easy for the tall German defender as he struggled to settle into the pace of the Premier League. His height was seen as a weakness by the opponents and was often exploited as it deprived him of speed.

However his awareness and a brilliant understanding of the game has held him in good stead in the last couple of seasons and made him an irreplaceable member of the squad. His impressive organisational skills have been a very important feature of recent Arsenal performances as they recorded their eighth straight away win in the Premier league yesterday at Swansea City, winning 2-1 where once more Mertesacker was his usual commanding self.

Don't Miss:

The lanky German has developed a very good partnership with the ever improving Laurent Koscielny which has helped make Arsenal genuine title contenders. He has also shown all the capabilities of a great leader and he bears a striking resemblance to Arsenal legend Tony Adams.

Wenger seems to have learnt a number of key lessons over the course of the summer transfer window where the Frenchman had to deal with the headache of Bacary Sagna’s transfer saga right through the summer and it seems he is determined to avoid more problems of the same kind in the future by extending the German’s contract with more than one year still remaining.

Sagna is another key part of the defence whose contract is heading towards its end, and Arsenal will be hoping to tie him down to a new deal as well in the coming months. Hopefully the club will tie both the players to new contracts as soon as possible.

Also, we wish Per Mertesacker a very Happy Birthday!