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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.

MORE: Arsenal set sights on signing £35m star

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.

4 Comments

  1. adrian

    August 6, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    perhaps emery got calum chambers to sign a new contract to protect his transfer value. If he has a good season at Fulham, the loan deal can become permanent for the right price. If they sign another defender the defence will be strengthened.

  2. Sean Williams

    August 6, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    I think the addition of 30-year-old Sokratis and now possibly Vida is because Unai Emery only sees a couple of years at Arsenal. Vida and Sokratis are not very tall and not very mobile. If we are honest Chambers and Holding are not good enough or fierce enough. So we have to be content with shortie Mustafi and Mr X. Who could Mr X be? At 6’4″ and athletic, and good with the ball I would go for Yerry Mina. At 23 he has room to improve and could end up making a pairing with Mavropanos, who is 6’4″. That could be our future Adams/Keown pairing. Until we get that pairing right we cannot challenge for the Premier League.

  3. Hep Yo

    August 6, 2018 at 6:04 pm

    You have it reversed. Chambers is going on loan, because the addition of Vida pushes him onto the bench and he needs game time.

    Wenger said he was very surprised at how good Mavropanos is for his age. Emery said his strikers are “Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah” which indicates a method of backing up the starters with very young talents rather than middling players like Welbeck, Perez or Chambers and Holding.

  4. Pingback: From Germany: Arsenal could hijack Man Utd's move with swoop to sign £45m star | Arsenal Station | Arsenal FC News

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