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Arsenal launch £58m bid to sign Liverpool target, Mislintat leading negotiations

By on June 2, 2018

According to reports in Portugal via TeamTalk, Arsenal have launched a £58m bid to sign Sporting Lisbon attacker Gelson Martins ahead of Liverpool this summer.

New boss Unai Emery is looking to reshape the squad after we missed out on the top four for the second consecutive year last season and a new attacker is seemingly on the cards.

TeamTalk are citing a report from O Jogo that claims Emery has identified Martins as the man he wants to play alongside Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang next season.

The Portuguese publication says Arsenal have now launched a club-record £58m bid to sign the 23-year-old with Sven Mislintat understood to be leading the talks with Sporting Lisbon.

Martins has become one of the most exciting attackers in Portuguese football in recent years and he enhanced that reputation with 13 goals and 13 assists in all competitions last season.

The youngster is predominantly a right-winger so he’d add some much needed width to the squad as I think we’ve lacked wide-men since selling Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez in January.

However, we aren’t the only club showing an interest in Martins as the report says Liverpool are long-term admirers and may now step-up their interest following Arsenal’s early move to sign the player.

Martins has been named in the Portugal squad for the World Cup so a positive showing in Russia would see competition and his asking price rocket, so Arsenal will want to get a deal wrapped-up quickly if we want to land the talented attacker.

READ: Arsenal open talks to sign £44m French star

Let’s see how talks progress but I personally think it would be a mistake to use-up the vast majority of our transfer budget [which is set at around £50m-£70m] on a winger when we have several other positions to fill.

We desperately need a new keeper, centre-back and defensive midfielder so those positions should be the priority before we splash out big money on another attacker.