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South American star at London Colney to complete move to Arsenal on £4m-a-year deal

By mac14 on August 24, 2020

According to various reports, Gabriel Magalhaes spent the day at London Colney putting the finishing touches on his move to Arsenal after agreeing a five-year contract worth around £4m-per season.

Mikel Arteta has been in the market for a left-sided central defender this summer as he looks to overhaul his defence and Gabriel was identified as his prime target after impressing for Lille last season.

Widespread outlets have claimed in recent days that Arsenal have won the race to sign the Brazilian U20 international after fending off interest from the likes of Manchester United and Napoli.

The Times claim the 22-year-old was due in north London on Monday to complete his £27m to Arsenal after agreeing a five-year contract worth around £80,000-a-week, which works out at just over £4m per season, having already undertaken a medical in France.

Goal journalist Charles Watts then reported this evening that Gabriel spent the day at Arsenal’s London Colney training base putting the finishing touches on his transfer after arriving from France on Monday morning.

Gabriel has spent the afternoon at London Colney. Travelled direct from the airport. He has been allowed there, while under strict medical supervision to put the finishing touches on his move having arrived from France this morning.

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) August 24, 2020

An official announcement on the deal is expected shortly so it looks as though Gabriel is set to join Arsenal and will become our second major signing of the summer following the arrival of Willian on a free transfer.

Gabriel looks to be a terrific young player and played a key role in helping Lille finish fourth in Ligue 1 last season with his performances earning a place in the L’Equipe ‘Team of the Season’.

Fixing Arsenal’s dodgy defence is a priority as it’s cost us far too many points in recent years but hopefully Arteta has found a solution with Gabriel set to form a new-look partnership alongside William Saliba.

No doubt David Luiz will play his fair share of games and his experience will be important to help Gabriel and Saliba but Arsenal finally have two hugely promising young centre-backs that we can build a foundation from over the next few years.

Unfortunately, due to government guidelines, Gabriel will have to quarantine for the next 14 days before he’ll be allowed to start training with his new Arsenal team mates so the South American will probably miss the start of the new season.