Arsenal are ‘ready to dive in’ on a deal for Mehdi Benatia, according to reports in France.
Le10Sport write that Arsenal are monitoring Benatia’s situation with current club Juventus. If the Italian champions decide to sell the player, Unai Emery’s transfer team are reportedly ready to make a move. The Serie A side would want around €30m (£26.3m) for the centre-back.
It would certainly be a surprising transfer, for a number of reasons. Firstly, Benatia just turned 31, so you wouldn’t expect Arsenal to make a major investment in the player. Also, he only joined Juventus a year ago, so he hasn’t had much of a chance to make an impression just yet.
On the other hand, the defender spent a lot of time on the sidelines this season, only starting half of Juventus’ league games. He was fit and ready to play at the end of the season, but sat on the bench for the entire 90 minutes for five of the last eight matches. That’s despite popping up with two goals in the Coppa Italia final.
When you look at it that way, the fact he’s 31 years old might actually make him more likely to push for a move. He can’t afford to waste the next couple of years on the bench.
Arsenal need an experienced defender to immediately slot into the team, so you never know.
Arsenal may need to buy more than 1 defender this summer, so click ‘Next’ to see the 7 other centre-backs the media are linking them to.
2Daniele Rugani
- Age: 23
- Current club: Juventus
- Contract until: 2021
- Market value: £18m
Rugani is a young defender who has a few years of experience learning from the likes of Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci, playing for one of the biggest teams in Europe. It doesn’t get much better than that in terms of learning your defensive trade.
According to the player’s agent, Arsenal showed an interest in the centre-back in January, but didn’t make an official offer at the time. We’ll see if they decide to go back in the summer.
Despite his age, Rugani already caught the eye of a lot of fans and critics.
In 2015, Don Balon named him as one of the best young players in the world. He is an intelligent player, who prefers to win the ball with his positioning, rather than diving in.
He keeps his focus well, and has a very good eye for a pass. As we know, passing is a key trait if you’re going to play in defence for Arsenal.
If Mislintat wants to freshen up the defence without losing top level European experience, Rugani could be the answer.