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Arsenal ‘In Pole Position’ To Land Sought-After £15m Croatian

By on June 27, 2014

It looks like Arsenal have joined Liverpool and Tottenham in the race to sign Dejan Lovren with reports today claiming that we are now in ‘pole position’ to sign the defender from Southampton.

Lovren enjoyed an excellent debut season in the Premier League following his move from Lyon last summer, as his solid displays at the back helped the Saints to an eight-placed finish in the Premier League.

But as has been the case with many of the Southampton players this summer, he has attracted interest from the upper echelons of the table and Liverpool and Tottenham have been strongly linked with a move for the 24-year-old in recent weeks.

Liverpool in particular have been on his case and supposedly had a bid in the region of £12m turned down before the World Cup, which prompted the centre-back to submit a formal transfer request.

There has been no official word on whether it was accepted or not but either way, it looks like it’s going to be increasingly difficult for the South Coast club to hang on to him and it’s looking even more unlikely following the news of Arsenal’s interest.

The Express are reporting today that we have now joined the chase for Lovren’s signature and are in fact in ‘pole position’ to land the Croatian international – who Southampton are understood to value at around £15m.

With Luke Shaw off to Man Utd for £27m, and Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert joining Liverpool for a combined £30m, it’s not been the best start to the summer for Saints fans, and that’s not even taking into consideration their manager leaving!

However, new boss Ronald Koeman already has a healthy transfer budget at his disposal and it could be boosted further with the sale of Lovren, and I’d be more than pleased if he were to come to Arsenal.

With Thomas Vermaelen tipped to leave we need more depth at the back and Lovren would be a great addition as he has experience at both international and Premier League level, and at 24 he’s got the best years ahead of him.

But he’s unlikely to oust either Koscielny or Mertesacker from Arsene Wenger’s starting eleven any time soon, so the big question will be whether he’d be happy being third choice at a big club like Arsenal or starting every week for the likes of Spurs 🙂

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