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Arsenal hope to sign £20m star after Wenger gives go-ahead to deal

By on August 5, 2016

According to the Sun, Arsenal are set to hold talks with Valencia and are hoping to secure a deal for Shkodran Mustafi over the coming days after Arsene Wenger gave the green light to signing the defender.

The boss desperately needs to bring in another centre-back after losing Per Mertesacker for five months with a knee injury which he picked up during our 1-1 friendly draw with Lens last month.

We need to get another body in as soon as possible as Laurent Koscielny isn’t back in pre-season training yet following his exploits at Euro 2016 while Gabriel is also struggling for fitness after a bout of tonsillitis.

Mustafi has emerged as our prime target in recent weeks and the Sun claim that we’re now due to hold formal talks with Valencia after Wenger gave the green light to securing a deal for the 24-year-old.

The newspaper says that our chief negotiator has talks planned with Valencia director Jesus Garcia Pitarch and all parties are hoping to agree a deal over the next few days, with the Spaniard’s ready to do business at £20m – despite Mustafi’s buyout clause being set at over £40m.

The Sun say that Valencia are so confident that a deal will be agreed with Arsenal that they’ve already approached Napoli to try and sign Raul Albiol as a replacement, so it looks like we could finally be about to sign another top class defender.

Mustafi and the rest of the Valencia squad are currently in London ahead of their pre-season friendly with Crystal Palace so it makes sense that we’re taking advantage of the situation to try and get a deal done this weekend.

MORE: BBC journo offers update on Arsenal’s pursuit’s of Mustafi, Mahrez & Draxler

Let’s see how things progress but the German international would be an excellent signing as he’d be a direct replacement for Mertesacker while he’s also capable of filling-in at full-back if required, so would act as back-up for Bellerin with Debuchy expected to leave this summer.