Arsenal sent a scout to watch Kalidou Koulibaly in Napoli’s Europa League defeat to RB Leipzig on Thursday night, according to reports in Italy.

CalcioMercato report that an Arsenal scout was in the stands at the San Paolo to watch the match. They claim that there was a “special” focus on Koulibaly, as the club search for new centre-backs.

Napoli ended up conceding three goals, so you’d think the scout wouldn’t be too happy with what they saw. Koulibaly actually put in a decent performance though. He made four tackles with a 100% success rate, two clearances and three interceptions. It was by no means a perfect performance, but not enough to end Arsenal’s interest either.

One player who would’ve also caught the eye is 21-year-old Timo Werner. The striker scored twice for Leipzig, continuing to improve his impressive record with the club. He has 16 goals and four assists in 29 appearances this season.

Realistically though, Arsenal shouldn’t aim to sign yet another striker in the summer. They’ve already broken their club-record transfer fee twice in two windows on centre-forwards.

Centre-back is a far more important area to focus on. Per Mertesacker is a few months from retirement, and most of the rest of Arsenal’s defenders are still very inexperienced. Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi are the only exceptions, and the club shouldn’t try to get by with those two alone. Especially given Koscielny’s age and injury problems.

We’ll see what happens, but I expect Arsenal to make a move for someone defensively this summer.

Transfermarkt believe he’s worth around £36m. His agent has said that he does not have a release clause.