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Arsenal considering Inter’s £20m Mustafi deal as Wenger eyes van Dijk

By on August 23, 2017

shkodran mustafi arsenal

According to the Mirror, Arsenal are contemplating selling Shkodran Mustafi to Inter Milan after the Italians tabled a formal bid as Arsene Wenger eyes a potential swoop for Virgil van Dijk.

Mustafi only moved to the Emirates in a £35m deal from Valencia last summer and he enjoyed an excellent start to life in England after forging an encouraging partnership alongside Laurent Koscielny.

However, an injury before Christmas derailed his campaign as he struggled to regain his best form during the second half of the season but there was enough potential to believe Mustafi could be an important player for the club.

Reports last week suggested that Inter Milan were plotting an ambitious move for the German international and it looks like they’ve now formalised their interest as the Mirror claim they’ve proposed to take the defender on loan with a view to making the deal permanent for around £20m next summer.

That sounds like an awful piece of business to me and I’d expect Inter’s offer to be immediately rejected, however, worryingly the Mirror suggest Arsenal have given the Serie A giants encouragement that a deal could happen before the window shuts.

Wenger has been shaking-up his defensive options as Gabriel was sold to Valencia last week for £10m [another ridiculously low fee] while Calum Chamber’s has been given another chance to stake his claim after seeing his exit blocked.

Selling Mustafi would be a huge shock but the Mirror say players at the club believe Arsenal chiefs are seriously considering cashing-in after Inter opened talks this week.

Wenger has confirmed in recent days that he needs to offload some players before he can buy again and the good news is that the Mirror suggest we may move for van Dijk if we get Mustafi off the books.

The paper says the Dutch international is a long-term target and Arsenal may yet challenge Liverpool and Chelsea for his signature during the closing stages of the window.

As much as I like Mustafi, I’d swap him in a heartbeat for van Dijk. Ideally I’d like to see us play a back three of Mustafi, van Dijk and Koscielny this season but that looks highly unlikely to happen so if it has to be one or the other, then it’s van Dijk all day long.

The problem is we face some serious competition for his signature so let’s hope the club don’t agree to sell Mustafi to Inter before we have a top class replacement lined-up.