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.
3Kalidou Koulibaly
- Age: 26
- Current club: Napoli
- Contract until: 2021
- Market value: £45m
According to reports earlier this year, 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 now that Per Mertesacker’s playing days are done.
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.
Without Champions League football, we’ll have to wait and see if Arsenal can find a way to convince the defender to turn down those that have it.