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Arsenal open talks to sign £25m star as Emery targets 6th signing

By on August 6, 2018

According to Turkish CNN, Arsenal have made a formal approach to Besiktas to sign Domagoj Vida as Unai Emery looks to buy the £25m-rated defender as a replacement for Calum Chambers.

Widespread reports today claim Chambers is on the verge of joining Fulham on a season-long loan deal and the Evening Standard says Emery is eyeing Vida as the man to replace him.

Speculation over the weekend suggested that Arsenal are showing a keen interest in the Croatian international with Vida one of the most talked about players on Twitter, according to the Transfer Hound, but it looks like with Chambers now almost out the door, we’ve stepped-up our pursuit.

CNN Turkey claim Arsenal chiefs have now opened talks with Besiktas over a deal for the 29-year-old but the Turkish giants are demanding £25m for Vida’s signature.

The report says Wolves, Leicester and Lyon are also eyeing the centre-back so we could face competition but Arsenal could use Besiktas’s interest in David Ospina to swap any deal in our favour.

CNN Turkey says Ospina is rated at around £5m so we could see Arsenal paying around £20m and including the Colombian goalkeeper in a player-plus-cash deal to land Vida.

The defender only joined Besiktas in January following five years at Dinamo Kiev but he enjoyed an excellent World Cup having played a key role in helping Croatia reach the final.

If he does join Arsenal he’d become our sixth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi.

However, I personally think this would be an odd move as Vida is hardly a top class centre-back and he’s almost 30 so doesn’t have much time left to further develop his talents during his time at the club.

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I’d much rather we stick with Chambers and used the money to buy a pacey winger instead. Or if we do sign a centre-back, let’s go all out and buy a proven, world class talent and not just spend £20m on an ageing player who did well in a few games at the World Cup.