The Greek international Sokratis becomes the second player the Gunners signed from Dortmund in the last year after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined a club fee in the January transfer period.
The 29-year-old is an experienced midfielder who shares the same agent as his compatriot Konstantinos Mavropanos, another player scouted and signed by the new Arsenal recruit chief, Sven Mislintat, at the end of the year.
Mislintat maintains a close relationship with leading figures in Dortmund, where he spent his time exploring, and played an influential role in the signings of Mavropanos, Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January, the latter being another former player from Dortmund to whom the German know well
The signing of Sokratis is the third acquisition of Unai Emery since he became Arsenal's head coach, after the arrival of Stephan Lichtsteiner in a free transfer of Juventus and Bernd Leno to complete his exchange of Bayer Leverkusen, although it was understood that Preliminary talks took place between Mislintat and the agent of the Greek defender before Emery took the hot seat at Emirates Stadium.
With Laurent Koscielny ruled out of injury until at least 10 November and Per Mertesacker retiring to take on a new position as head of the Arsenal academy, Mislintat is reinforcing the defense of the Gunners who lacks experience and conceded 51 times in the Premier League during the last season of Arsene Wenger in charge
The father of the defender, Charalambos Papastathopoulos, told the Greek radio station 24/7 in early June that he arrived late from Manchester United to join the Gunners.
Arsenal are also approaching a move by Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira, although they are unlikely to complete the deal for the Uruguayan international until after the World Cup.
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