After being acquired for £38 million from Ajax, the Dutchman was welcomed with considerable excitement, and it is easy to see why. Timber is the epitome of the ideal contemporary defender in a time when teams can only succeed by out-passing their opponents until they are dead.

Not that we mean that negatively either. Leaving the ACL destruction aside, Timber possesses all the skills necessary to become an Arsenal defender for all time. However, they won’t be able to complete the 2023–24 season while he is away recovering.

Gunners fans are eager to see their team enter the market once more, but we have evidence that they don’t actually need to. In order to avoid sounding too much like your mother who always suggests making a pizza from scratch rather than buying takeout, take a moment to consider what we have to say.

In terms of football, Reuell Walters is known for being a genetic freak. Additionally, it’s not only us that believe this. Oleksandr Zinchenko will go on and on about the adolescent if you ask him.

In a video posted to Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube account, the Arsenal player named young Walters as having the most promise. He continued, “I swear to god, once he pushed Gabriel Jesus shoulder to shoulder, it’s not simple to push Gabi, yeah. After, he played the ball with assurance. He managed the ball nicely. Wow, he really impressed me.

It’s quite alarming to be pushing experienced senior footballers away from the ball to the point that one of the other senior lads is peering over his shoulder. What is this child topping his Weetabix with in the morning?

Whatever it is, double it up and give us a serving, because Walters is the truth. And it’s not just because he can hold his own from a physical perspective – his technical traits are equally as nauseating.

When he isn’t picking up the ball and making training difficult for the rest of the team because they can’t get it back off him, he is waltzing onto the first-team pitch from the under-23s and bashing into Mikel Arteta’s most costly assets.

The kid’s dribbling is incredible, but we don’t want to go into a technical, tactical, or boring discussion right now. Operating between a full-back and center-back position, he appears to have merged years of observing Lionel Messi’s dribbling exploits with the greatest qualities of Paolo Maldini, including mobility, positioning, strength, and speed.

Come to a stop, the world; we’re leaving. Since when, much alone 18-year-old prospects, were defenders capable of doing this?

When a centre-back’s job was to locate row Z and commit as many counts of GBH as they could without getting flagged for a foul, the world was a lot less frightening place. Though it’s unsettling, we can accept the fact that things have changed if it means that Walters joins Arteta’s squad this season and contributes his talent to the Premier League.

Walters complements Timber exceptionally well and fills the void he created in the first team with ease. He also brings with him an incredible amount of technical skill on the ball as well as an unwavering fearlessness and potential that had him on Manchester United’s radar a few years ago.

And even better, Arsenal supporters, you snatched him right out from under Spurs’ nose — he signed with the team a year after his deal with Tottenham ran out.

There are midfielders that are unable to move through the lines as smoothly as he did in the video above. Arsenal’s already-tight defense may become significantly generational if Arteta hands him the keys.