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Arsenal plotting swoop to sign talented defender as Emery prepares to splash £40m

By on February 6, 2019

According to reports in Germany via The Sun, Arsenal are interested in signing RB Leipzig centre-back Ibrahima Konate as Unai Emery prepares to spend his meager £40m transfer kitty wisely this summer.

The newspaper is one of several outlets reporting that Emery will have a tight budget to work from this summer – especially if we miss out on Champions League qualification – so the boss is going to have to be creative in the market.

A new centre-back is expected to be a priority as Shkodran Mustafi has been a disaster since arriving from Valencia and is tipped to leave this summer, Rob Holding is facing a long road to recovery from a knee injury and Laurent Koscielny is coming towards the end of his career.

It’s clear Arsenal need to overhaul their defence after another shocking season at the back that’s seen us concede 36 goals in 25 Premier League games so far – which is 21 more than leaders Liverpool.

Thankfully it looks like we’re already working on targets as the Sun are citing a report from Sport Bild [no link as it was in their print paper] that claims Arsenal are showing a keen interest in Leipzig star Konate.

The German outlet says we’ve been sending scouts to keep a close eye on the 19-year-old ahead of a summer swoop but Arsenal will face competition from Chelsea as they’ve also been alerted to Konate’s potential.

The teenager joined Leipzig from Sochaux in 2017 and he’s been superb for Leipzig this season having played a key role in helping them sit fourth in the Bundesliga table.

Arsenal can’t afford to pay the kind of money it requires to buy a ready-made world class defender like Virgil van Dijk or Kalidou Koulibaly so we’re going to have to target lower-level players and Konate has bags of potential.