Talks with Valencia over bringing centre-back, Shkodran Mustafi, to Arsenal appear to be coughing and spluttering over the finish line, if reports are to be believed.
Early on Friday, we reported that Emanuele Giulianelli was claiming that a €30m deal for the German international was supposed to be done that day (obviously it wasn’t) and that a medical will happen on Monday.
+++ Arsenal: looks like Mustafi will be agreed tomorrow. Club were waiting to see if injury would heal as expected. Looks to be €30m #afc
— Emanuele Giulianelli (@EmaGiulianelli) August 18, 2016
Mustafi medicals with Arsenal expected to be on Monday. #afc
— Emanuele Giulianelli (@EmaGiulianelli) August 18, 2016
Given Giulianelli’s history of being generally wrong when it comes to transfer gossip, we took this news pretty lightly.
At the same time, other outlets were reporting that we’d submitted a €30m bid, while others claimed that the reason the deal is taking so long is no fault of Arsenal’s but the agents at Valencia’s end.
Gazzetta dello Sport claim Arsenal have finally submitted an offer of €30m for Mustafi. #AFC
— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) August 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/AFCPressWatch/status/766422828195479552
Interestingly, however, Spanish football expert, Guillem Balague, told Sky Sports that the La Liga team are actually asking for €40m, not €30m, which Arsenal won’t pay and – for the record – he doesn’t think the player is worth it.
Meanwhile, Napoli reportedly rejected a £58m offer from Chelsea for centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, which many think will mean the Blues turn their full attention to Mustafi.
#calciomercatopremium@carlolaudisa: "@sscnapoli ha rifiutato un'offerta di 58 milioni del @ChelseaFC per @kkoulibaly26"
— PremiumSportHD (@PremiumSportHD) August 18, 2016
What do we know?
Some outlets are claiming that Arsenal have offered €30m for Mustafi, while others say that Valencia want more and Chelsea are also interested.
Liverpool are apparently not interested, despite earlier reports, according to Liverpool Echo writer, James Pearce (thanks @SarriesKid10 for that find, by the way).
Told there's no truth in reports #LFC are trying to sign Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia. Had been talk of offering Luis Alberto plus cash
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceEcho) August 17, 2016
Confused? I certainly am.