Arsenal are considering making an approach for free agent John Stones.
On the surface, it makes a lot of sense. Champions League winner. Multiple Premier League titles. One of England’s best defenders of his generation. And Mikel Arteta has form with ex-Manchester City players — Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko joined in 2022 and transformed the club’s culture overnight. The temptation to go back to that thinking is completely understandable.
But then you look at the numbers. And they are not exactly enticing.
Over the past three seasons, Stones has missed 339 days through injury. Nearly an entire calendar year. He has not played more than two-thirds of available league minutes in over eight seasons.
How do you think John Stones would fare at Arsenal in place of the injured William Saliba?
In 2025/26, he managed five Premier League starts, three of which came in August. In the last three Premier League seasons combined, he has started only one more game than Riccardo Calafiori managed last season.
Everton, Inter, Juventus and Milan have all been linked with him this summer but all of them have hesitated. That tells you something.
If Pep Guardiola gave up on John Stones, why would Arsenal take the risk?
Pep Guardiola has helped extend the careers of players most clubs would have moved on from years earlier.
And yet even he ran out of patience with Stones. He notably dropped him for the Carabao Cup final earlier this year despite having other centre-backs injured.
According to The Athletic, Stones felt the need to be cautious with his body at times, while Guardiola likes to push players to play through the pain barrier.
Arteta’s culture is just as intense as Guardiola’s, arguably more so given what we now know about how hard Arsenal trained last season and the toll it took on the squad.
If Stones clashed with Pep over managing his fitness, why would it be any different at the Emirates?
There’s a reason City have let him go. They decided his body has given out, and they rarely get these sort of calls wrong.
Arsenal would be picking up the player their direct title rivals chose to get rid of, and paying him handsomely in wages.
We have been burned by injuries too much. Stones is the ‘easy button’ signing, but we need more than what he would be able to offer.
John Stones transfer alternatives
There’s no doubting Stones’ quality. He’s been a top, top player for City. And in an ideal world, he comes in, plays 15-20 games, injury-free, because his style is great.
But football is not an ideal world. Someone like Ezri Konsa would be a much safer buy, if Arsenal can drive Aston Villa’s £60million valuation down.
He is consistent, Premier League-proven, can cover at right-back, a London boy, and rarely misses games.
Yes, he would cost a lot for a player his age, but paying a premium for reliability is infinitely better than getting Stones for free and watching him pick up another injury in October.
There are other ways to address the problem too. Arsenal have been offered Zeno Debast from Sporting CP, who is really good on the ball and progressive.
Chelsea’s Josh Acheampong would be a smart buy to future-proof the defence. He is possibly more of a full-back at this age, but could Ben White move inside? That’s another option.
What is critical, regardless of how long Saliba is out for, is that we protect him when he is back. We want him to stay back. That doesn’t mean playing him three games a week, five weeks in a row. It means rotating him with comfort, with a player who can really do that job and not just a ‘make-do’ option.
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