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Arsenal Eye Swoop For €19m German, Scouts Watched Him This Week

By on February 6, 2015

According to reports, Arsenal are eyeing a summer move for €19m-rated Schalke defender Benedikt Howedes.

We were strongly linked with Howedes last summer when we were on the look-out for a replacement for Vermaelen and his name cropped up again during the January window.

Despite signing Gabriel Paulista from Villarreal, the Express claim that Arsene Wenger is continuing to keep an eye on the German international as he apparently has plans to further strengthen his defence in the summer.

The 26-year-old has been in excellent form for Schalke this season and the newspaper suggests he’d cost in the region of €19m (£14m) – which would be a decent price for an experienced World Cup winning defender – and Wenger supposedly had scouts watch him during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.

However, we’re not the only ones in the chase as the Express claim that Manchester United are also interested and Louis van Gaal is likely to match any offer we put forward for the Schalke skipper.

I personally thought we ended our hunt for centre-backs with the acquisition of Gabriel but this report states that Wenger is still worried over the long-term fitness of Koscielny, so is considering bringing in another versatile defender at the end of the season.

Koscielny’s on-going Achilles issues are certainly a concern while Mertesacker turns 31 in September, and he’s only going to get slower (if that’s even possible), so perhaps we do need to look at bringing in another defender.

Howedes has made his name as a centre-back but he’s also capable of playing at left-back, and with rumours persisting that Nacho Monreal could be heading back to Spain this summer, perhaps a move for the German international would be a smart one.

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