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Arsenal Lining-Up €28m Bid For Italian Defender – Reports

By on July 15, 2015

An interesting report to bring you this evening with the Daily Star citing reports coming out of Italy that claim Arsenal are lining-up a €28m bid for Roma defender Alessio Romagnoli.

We’ve been linked with a number of centre-backs so far this summer with the newspapers believing that Arsene Wenger is looking to bring in another option at the back.

It appears the boss has his eye on a highly-rated Italian U-21 international as the Star cite reports from Corierre dello Sport that claim we’ve identified Romagnoli as a key target.

The 20-year-old spent last season on loan at Sampdoria where he impressed during his 31 appearances and he’s now attracting interest from some of Europe’s top clubs.

The newspaper suggests that Wenger views Romagnoli as a long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker and is now set to table a huge €28m (£20m) offer.

AC Milan are also understood to be showing a keen interest and have already had an opening €24.5m (£17.5m) bid turned down, so Roma clearly rate the youngster highly.

I’ve said many times in recent weeks that I’d be surprised if Wenger does bring in another centre-back this summer as I personally don’t see it as an area of concern following Gabriel’s arrival in January.

If we do bring someone in then it would make sense if it was a youngster who’ll eventually take over from Per in a couple of years time rather than an established name who’ll demand first team football immediately.

However, I don’t think there’s any chance the boss will spend £20m on a relatively unproven defender this summer, so I’m taking these reports with a huge grain of salt.