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Arsenal ready to splash £32m on player who would solve huge problem area for Emery

By on May 17, 2019

According to Italian outlet Il Messaggero, Arsenal are prepared to trigger Kostas Manolas’s £32m release clause this summer and he would be a superb addition to Unai Emery’s squad.

It’s expected to be another busy summer of transfer activity at the Emirates this summer as Emery continues to overhaul the squad left behind by Arsene Wenger and sorting our leaky defence is going to be a priority.

Arsenal shipped a ridiculous 51 goals in the league this season and there is no way we can be contenders for major honours until we improve at the back. To put things in perspective, Man City conceded 23 goals while Liverpool just 22 times so we need a revamp in defence.

Shkodran Mustafi is being linked with a move away from north London and I think most Gooners would love to see him leave while Laurent Koscielny – who turns 34 this year – is coming towards the end of his career.

So a new centre-back is desperately needed this summer and Il Messaggero are reporting that Arsenal are ready to meet a release clause worth around £32m [€36m] in the contract of AS Roma defender Kostas Manolas.

The Greek international has been linked with a move to Arsenal since his days at Olympiacos and he’s been one of the most consistent centre-backs in Serie A since moving to Italy in 2014.

The 27-year-old would be a MAJOR improvement on Mustafi and £32m is a reasonable price for a player of Manolas’ quality in today’s market so I’d love to see Arsenal make a real push to sign him.

We can bypass negations with Roma by triggering his release clause but we may still need to convince Manolas to move to north London – especially if we fail to qualify for the Champions League by beating Chelsea later this month.

Another problem is we aren’t the only club in the running for his signature as Il Messaggero claims that Juventus are also prepared to match Manolas’s release fee this summer and we all know how powerful the Old Lady are in Italy.

However, Juve have confirmed today that Max Allegri will leave the club this summer so whoever replaces him is likely to have his own transfer targets, which could be good news for Arsenal’s pursuit of Manolas.

If we can get anywhere near £20m for Mustafi – as has been reported – then we should stump up the extra £12m to sign Manolas as our defence would improve overnight with him at the back.