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South American star completes Arsenal medical ahead of £27m move

By on August 21, 2020

Gabriel-Magalhaes

According to The Times, Gabriel Magalhaes has now completed his medical with Arsenal ahead of a proposed £27m move from Lille with the centre-back poised to sign a five-year contract at the Emirates.

Gabriel has been hotly tipped to join Arsenal over the past few days and The Times are one of several outlets claiming that we’ve sealed a deal with Lille worth up to £27m to sigh the highly-rated defender.

It was reported on the Transfer Window Podcast – featuring Duncan Castles, Ian McGarry and Graham Hunter – on Thursday that Gabriel was due to undergo his medical with Arsenal by the end of the week.

The Times have now reported today that the 22-year-old has successfully completed his medical examinations ahead of his move to Arsenal but the newspaper suggests that Napoli have still not given up hope of hijacking our deal.

There have also been widespread reports in the media suggesting that Manchester United have made a late attempt to lure Gabriel away from Arsenal after opening talks with his representatives but I think those reports are just the players agent trying to squeeze an extra few quid out of us.

Let’s hope so anyway as it would be a big blow to lose Gabriel at this stage. The Brazilian U20 international is considered to be one of the best young centre-backs in Europe following a terrific season with Lille last campaign.

He’s a left-footed centre-back – which is something Mikel Arteta has been desperately trying to add to the squad – and Gabriel could form a rock solid partnership alongside William Saliba at the Emirates for years to come.

Let’s see if anything concrete comes out over the coming hours/days but according to The Times, Gabriel is close to becoming Arsenal’s second major signing of the summer following the arrival of Willian.

In order to make room for his arrival, I expect Arteta to offload at least one of his current centre-backs. Sokratis is being strongly linked with a move to Italy, while Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers are all reportedly available this summer.

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