Arsenal are interested in Benjamin Pavard, but concrete negotiations and a final decision will have to wait until July, with the World Cup coming up in 10 days time.
3Kostas Manolas
- Age: 26
- Current club: AS Roma
- Contract until: 2022
- Market value: £31.5m
Very late in the January window, reliable BBC journalist David Ornstein confirmed Arsenal were exploring the possibility of signing the Roma centre-back. He also revealed that Arsene Wenger was trying to sign the defender back in the summer of 2016, before settling for Shkodran Mustafi.
Clearly the club like the defender, so they could revive that interest again this summer. The Manolas links feel like they’ve been going on forever, but at 26 he still has a lot of football ahead of him.
The Greek international is great in the air, and he has a lot of top level experience as well. He helped Roma to a Champions League semi-final, before eventually narrowly losing out to Liverpool.
Perhaps Arsenal could bring Manolas in to join Konstantinos Mavropanos, a fellow Greek defender who joined in January. Roma are under no obligation to sell though, with Manolas’ contract lasting another four years.