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Arsenal in talks to sign international as Wenger prepares £25m bid [BBC]

By on January 8, 2018

The BBC claim Arsenal have opened talks with West Bromwich Albion over a deal to sign Jonny Evans with Arsene Wenger ready to offer £25m for the defender this month.

We were strongly linked with Evans during the summer after it emerged that Shkodran Mustafi could be heading to Inter Milan but the Baggies refused to do business and Mustafi stayed at the Emirates.

However, we’re back in the market for a centre-back as Per Mertesacker is set to retire, Laurent Koscielny is plagued by an on-going Achilles injury while Calum Chambers and Rob Holding have failed to progress.

It looks like Evans is now back on Wenger’s radar as the BBC claim Arsenal have opened talks with West Brom over a potential deal to sign the Northern Ireland international this month.

The report says Wenger is prepared to pay £25m and has the advantage of knowing that West Brom hold an interest in Mathieu Debuchy, and the boss is ready to include the defender as part of any deal.

However, we aren’t the only club in the running as the BBC claim Man City have also been in touch with the Baggies and Evans’ preference would be to remain in the north near his family – although the defender won’t ignore interest from a club like Arsenal.

The 30-year-old has just 18 months left to run on his contract and has made it clear he won’t sign an extension so West Brom may decide to cash-in now rather than let him run down his deal any further.

I think it’s obvious we need to reshape our defence as we’ve been letting in goals for fun again this season and Evans would be a solid – albeit short-term – solution.

He’s proven in the Premier League and would be a great replacement for Per Mertesacker but I personally think we need to aim higher in terms of replacing Koscileny or Mustafi.