Jose Mourinho has expressed the opinion that David Luiz should be a ‘fantastic’ signing for Arsenal after his somewhat surprising deadline day transfer from rivals Chelsea.
The Brazil international was notably sold by Mourinho during his time as Blues manager, when he let him go to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2014.
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Luiz later returned to Stamford Bridge when Antonio Conte became manager, and has generally been a big success in both spells at the club.
‘I think it’s a fantastic move for Arsenal,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports, as quoted by AFTV in the tweet below.
Arsenal look to have done well to bring in this experienced centre-back who should surely prove an upgrade on Shkodran Mustafi, and a decent short-term replacement for Laurent Koscielny.
The 32-year-old has long divided opinion, however, and it perhaps comes as a surprise that Mourinho rates this signing given he offloaded the player while he was in charge of Chelsea.
"I think it's a fantastic move for Arsenal."
– Jose Mourinho on David Luiz pic.twitter.com/nB9xlINRCH
— AFTV (@AFTVMedia) August 11, 2019
And prior to letting him go, the Portuguese tactician often used Luiz in midfield rather than defence, showing that he perhaps didn’t view him as solid enough back there.
Arsenal fans will hope, however, that his current appraisal of the deal proves accurate.