Arsenal have secured their fourth signing of the summer by tying up a £16m deal for Southampton right-back Calum Chambers for a fee believed to be in the region of £16 million, the club have confirmed on their official website.
The 19-year-old joins Alexis Sanchez, David Ospina and Mathieu Debuchy on the list of new arrivals and will compete with the latter for a place in the starting XI.
Gunners manager Arsene Wenger sees Chambers as not only competition for Debuchy on the right side of defence, but also as a centre-back, or even in a more advanced role.
So far Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana have joined Liverpool, Luke Shaw has left for Manchester United and Mauricio Pochettino has been appointed Tottenham Hotspur boss.
Pochettino has also made enquires about bringing Jay Rodriguez with him to White Hart Lane, whilst Dejan Lovren is on the verge of joining Lambert and Lallana at Anfield in a £20m move.
It means new manager Ronald Koeman will have to try and emulate the success of the south coast club finishing in the top 10 in the past two seasons without the core of the team that achieved that.
Meanwhile at the Emirates Stadium the arrival of Chambers means that Carl Jenkinson is likely to be loaned out in order to obtain first team football.
With both the Englishman and Debuchy in North London, Jenkinson’s opportunities for game time will be extremely limited.