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Arsenal agree personal terms with key target, fee also agreed, announcement this week

By on August 19, 2020

Gabriel-Magalhaes

It looks like Arsenal are on the verge of signing Gabriel Magalhaes as the centre-back has now agreed personal terms over a 5-year contract after we sealed a £22m deal with Lille, according to reports today.

After landing Willian last week, boss Mikel Arteta has turned his attention to strengthening his defence and widespread reports have suggested that Gabriel has been identified as Arsenal’s prime centre-back target.

The Brazilian U20 international has been strongly linked with a move to north London in recent weeks and the Daily Mail claimed on Tuesday that Arsenal have agreed a deal with Lille worth £22m plus add-ons.

As per the newspaper report, Napoli made a late attempt to hijack our deal but Gabriel had already decided to join Arsenal as he wants to play under Arteta and link-up with fellow Brazilians Willian and David Luiz in London.

The transfer has now moved another huge step closer to completion as The Times claim that Gabriel has agreed personal terms over a five-year contract with Arsenal and is expected to make a formal announcement over his future before the end of the week.

So it looks like we are on the verge of wrapping-up another signing and Gabriel will be something of a coup as he’s been linked with a number of clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea this summer.

The 22-year-old has been one of the best young defenders in Ligue 1 over the past two years and was named in L’Equipe’s ‘team of the season’ following a string of impressive displays that helped Lille secure European football next season.

Arteta has been on the look out for a left-footed central defender and Gabriel is the man he’s gone for. The South American could now line-up alongside William Saliba next season and they have the potential to form a rock solid partnership at the back for Arsenal.

However, in order to make room for the duo, Arteta is going to have to offload some of his current centre-backs and Sokratis is being linked with a move to Italy while Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding could also be sold this summer.

Fingers crossed we can find buyers for the dead wood and get this proposed deal for Gabriel over the line as we may finally have a defence we can rely on next season as Arteta looks to get us back into the top four.