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Arsenal’s move for £20m defender thwarted by Jose Mourinho

By on August 24, 2016

According to the Telegraph, Arsenal are showing a keen interest in signing £20m-rated Manchester United defender Phil Jones but Jose Mourinho will refuse to do any business with Arsene Wenger.

The boss is frantically trying to find another centre-back after Gabriel and Per Mertesacker were ruled out through injury and we’ve so far been frustrated in our attempts to sign top target Shkodran Mustafi.

Wenger is reportedly willing to pay around £25m for the German international but Valencia are demanding the full value of his £43m buyout clause making any potential deal highly unlikely at this stage.

The club are believed to be hopeful that Valencia will eventually cave and lower their asking price over the next week but Wenger still needs to look for a back-up plan and the Telegraph claim that we’re now eyeing a shock swoop on United for Phil Jones.

We missed out on the 24-year-old when he opted to join United from Blackburn Rovers in 2011 but his career has stalled at Old Trafford in recent years after making just 13 appearances last season.

His chances of regular football look no greater under new boss Mourinho following the arrival of Eric Bailly and Jones could fall even further down the pecking order if rumours that United are ready to buy Jose Fonte are true.

The Telegraph claim that if United decided to sell, they’d value Jones at a minimum of £20m and the England international could be open to the idea of joining Arsenal if it meant he’d play more regularly.

However, our chances of signing the defender are slim as the newspaper says that Mourinho will refuse to do business with his old foe Wenger and would therefore block any attempt from Arsenal to lure Jones to the Emirates.

MORE: Arsenal plotting sensational swoop for £60m striker

Jones has had plenty of injury problems over the past 24 months, isn’t match fit and is low on confidence so I personally won’t be too bothered that we won’t be signing him, but time is running out for Wenger to get the players in that we need to make us title challengers this season….