- Heinze joins Arteta’s Arsenal coaching team
- Arsenal told to raise offer for Cristhian Mosquera
- Arsenal set to complete summer signing of Christian Nørgaard
- Arsenal have ‘discussed’ to sign Ademola Lookman
- Arsenal in ‘favourable position’ to sign Rodrygo Goes
- Arsenal told Viktor Gyokeres will be perfect signing
- Arsenal ‘working’ to table bid to sign Eze
- Arsenal agree terms with Madueke ahead of opening bid
- Arsenal announce £56m signing of Martin Zubimendi
- Gyökeres takes major step to join Arsenal this summer
Report: Arsenal in talks with agent over deal to sign £27m Serie A star
According to TuttoMercatoWeb, Arsenal are in talks with the agent of Armando Izzo over a potential deal to sign the Torino centre-back as Unai Emery looks to strengthen his defence this summer.
After conceding 70 goals in all competitions last season, it’s safe to say Arsenal need to improve at the back and a new commanding centre-back is desperately needed to help sort out our leaky defence.
The likes of William Saliba and Joachim Andersen have been strongly linked but it seems Emery is keeping his options open as TuttoMercaoWeb claims Arsenal are in talks with Izzo’s agent.
The Italian publication says the players representative, Paolo Palermo, is currently in London holding talks with Arsenal bosses about a potential switch to north London this summer.
Izzo only joined Torino last summer from Genoa but he’s proven to be an excellent signing as he helped the club secure a seventh-placed finish in Serie A and they boasted one of the best defensive records in the division.
The 27-year-old has also broken into the Italian national team set-up – making his debut earlier this year – and he’s considered to be one of the best central defenders in Italian football right now.
He’d be an upgrade on some of our current crop of defenders and I’d certainly take Izzo over Shkodran Mustafi but a deal won’t be straightforward as Torino are desperate to keep hold of him.
Izzo still has four years left on his contract and Football Italia claim Arsenal would need to pay around £27m [€30m] to get a deal agreed but it remains to be seen whether Emery is prepared to use a large portion of his budget on just one player.
The Spaniard only has around £40m-£45m to spend this summer and we need to sign a full-back, midfielder and winger as well as a centre-back so we wouldn’t be left with much if we spent £27m on Izzo.
However, Emery can boost his kitty by selling some of his current players and Mustafi is the obvious one who should be sacrificed if we can find a club stupid enough to buy him.