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Arsenal submit £12.6m bid for Belgian defender Bjorn Engels – report

By on August 2, 2016

According to reports in Belgium, Arsenal have submitted a £12.6m (€15m) bid for highly-rated Club Brugge centre-back Bjorn Engels and are also eyeing Zenit Saint Petersburg’s Nicolas Lombaerts.

Arsene Wenger is desperately trying to bring in another central defender after losing Per Mertesacker for five months with a serious knee injury last week.

German international Shkodran Mustafi has been strongly linked in recent days but it looks like Wenger is keeping his options open and lining-up alternatives in-case we can’t agree a deal with Valencia.

Belgian outlet Voetbalkrant claims that Arsenal have made an opening £12.6m offer for highly-rated Belgian U21 international Bjorn Engels after Wenger identified the player as ‘one for the future’.

This seems questionable considering we’ve already brought in Rob Holding from Bolton and Arsene has made it clear he wants to sign a more experienced player to replace Mertesacker.

Either way, Voetbalkrant claim that the offer will be rejected by Club Brugge but say that we’ve also registered our interest in Zenit centre-back Nicolas Lombaerts – who’e looking to find a new club this summer following nine years in Russia.

Lombaerts would make a lot more sense as he’s 31 and has plenty of experience at both club and at international level with Belgium so the 6ft 2ins centre-back would be a more suitable replacement for Per.

The newspaper says that he’d love to join Arsenal if we put an offer forward for his services but we’ll have to wait and see whether Wenger decides to make his interest official.

MORE: £38m attacker desperate to join Arsenal

I personally still think Mustafi would be the best buy and he’s the most realistic target right now. The 24-year-old is currently in London with the Valencia squad preparing for friendlies against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace but there are rumours circulating on social media that he pulled out of training today with a ‘mystery’ foot injury.

Is he trying to force a move to Arsenal? Let’s hope so!