Sven Mislintat wants Arsenal to sign a centre-back as one of four positions he’s looking to strengthen this summer according to reports, but who are the available options?
We recently covered reports of the four areas Arsenal’s new head of recruitment wants to strengthen over the summer, which you can check out here.
One of these areas was in the back line, as the club look to replace and reinforce a group that are mostly ageing, injury prone, retiring or inexperienced.
So who could the club look to target this summer?
2Kalidou Koulibaly
- Age: 26
- Current club: Napoli
- Contract until: 2021
- Market value: £36m
According to recent reports, Arsenal sent scouts to watch Koulibaly as Napoli played RB Leipzig in the Europa League. The defender apparently “continues to like the English club a lot”.
The club also reportedly showed an interest last summer, making an enquiry for his services. Ultimately that led to nothing as Arsenal didn’t make any further signings until January.
Koulibaly’s strengths are his tackling and his passing, with over a 90% pass completion rate this season. Also, at 1.95m he provides a major physical presence in defence. That’s something which could be very helpful at Arsenal, especially as Per Mertesacker retires.
The biggest roadblock for Arsene Wenger if he wants to sign the Senegal international is the competition from elsewhere. Manchester United and Chelsea have both been following the defender for some time now.
Arsenal need to try and make it back into the Champions League if they want to compete with those two.