Arsenal and Bayern Munich both remain interested in Eintracht Frankfurt full-back Nathaniel Brown this summer, according to a report.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor reports for The Athletic that Eintracht Frankfurt defender Nathaniel Brown is the subject of interest from Bayern Munich and Arsenal, and that the player is expected to leave his current club this summer.
Tom Canton confirms for Football.London that Arsenal are interested and keeping close tabs, explaining that the pursuit of yet another left-back would likely be accompanied by Myles Lewis-Skelly moving into midfield and one of Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori moving to centre-back.
Canton points out that Arsenal don’t really have an alternative to Gabriel Magalhaes at left-centre-back, and that Hincapie and Calafiori have each had injury problems. So the addition of Brown would help to shore up both positions.
Brown has been linked with Arsenal for a while, with Johannes Wolf reporting for Bild earlier this year that the Gunners were one name on a shortlist of clubs the player could join.
At the time, the German outlet claimed a summer move was highly likely. Though Brown isn’t causing any trouble behind the scenes, like Hugo Ekitike last summer, the belief is that the number of clubs chasing him is too large to expect him to stay.
Bild then claimed the price tag for Brown’s signing would be around €65m (£56.1m), and the club’s sporting director Markus Krosche wants to make him the most expensive pure left-back in history, surpassing the €65.3m Chelsea paid for Marc Cucurella.
Brown himself then talked about those reports in April, saying: “You do pick up on things like that, but it doesn’t influence me.
“[€65m is] a truly staggering sum. But frankly speaking, I’m not giving numbers like that, or the possibility of a transfer this summer, a second thought.
“I’ll see what happens in the summer. It’s hard to make plans in football, which is why I don’t dwell on it.”
Brown made his debut for the German national team in October, and reports of Arsenal interest in him emerged around the same time.
It’s certainly not surprising that a young player debuting for a major national team like Germany would start to draw attention from the big clubs, and that’s only likely to increase now he’s off to the World Cup.
It seems the Gunners’ admiration hasn’t faded, with Brown making 42 appearances, scoring four goals, and providing six assists this season with Frankfurt.
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