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Arsenal in talks over deal to sign £30m star, Emery has made him a top priority

By on June 4, 2019

According to the Daily Mail, Arsenal are in talks with Paris Saint-Germain over a deal to sign full-back Thomas Meunier this summer but the French giants value him at around £30m.

Unai Emery needs to revamp his squad this summer after we finished fifth in the Premier League and were humiliated by Chelsea in the Europa League final and I expect a new centre-back, midfielder and winger to be among the priorities.

However, the Daily Mail claims Emery has made Meunier one of his key transfer targets and the boss is supposedly desperate to bring the right-back to north London to compete with Hector Bellerin next season.

Right-back has been an area of concern for a while as we’ve had very little dependable back-up behind Bellerin and I think the Spaniard’s injury back in January was the turning point of our season as he was sorely missed during the second half of the campaign.

Stephan Lichtsteiner is leaving after a disastrous year at the club while Carl Jenkinson clearly isn’t Premier League level so Emery was forced to deploy Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right-back in recent months.

The 21-year-old did a decent job at times – especially at right wing-back – but he’s not a specialist full-back as he’s far more comfortable in midfield so we do need to bring in someone who can support Bellerin next year.

It seems Meunier is the man Emery wants and the Daily Mail says Arsenal have held talks with PSG over a potential deal but the Ligue 1 champions value the Belgian international at £30m.

According to the report, Arsenal are trying to persuade them to lower their valuation to around £20m but even that might be beyond us as Emery only has around £45m to spend this summer after failing to qualify for the Champions League.

It would be madness to spend around half our budget on a back-up right-back so I pray we don’t push the boat out to sign Meunier as that money would be much better spent elsewhere.

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The 27-year-old has just one year left on his contract and hasn’t been a regular at PSG this season so we should be able to strike a deal but I wouldn’t pay anywhere near £20m for him.

I’d rather we took a chance on a younger right-back to support Bellerin and use the money to sign a top class centre-back and/or winger while a box-to-box midfielder should also be higher on the priority list than a second choice full-back.