With Lukas Podolski expected to finalise a move to Inter Milan any time now, Arsenal have been linked by the Daily Star with a potential replacement in Lazio star Keita Balde Diao.
The story is light on details but it suggests that Arsenal and Liverpool (and Inter Milan) will go head-to-head for the 19 year old left winger as Lazio are willing to sell for around £15m.
Their source is Italian website Corriere della Sera but I’ve looked on the website and I can’t find the original story and even then, the Star don’t mention any form of evidence or source that might have fed the original article.
Further on from that, I find it really hard to believe that Arsenal would let someone like Podolski go in midseason if they felt they needed to replace him. And knowing how long Arsenal take to complete transfers (and how much Arsenal spent in summer), it seems very unlikely that Arsenal would make this position a priority.
The Star article suggests that Keita was let go from the Barcelona academy because of concerns about his attitude and behaviour and given that Liverpool already have Balotelli on their books, why on earth would they be looking for someone else that could cause problems?
It’s hard to comment more without more information being available, but at the moment I’d suggest that this is very unlikely.
Keita has made 44 appearances for Lazio scoring 8 goals and providing 11 assists.