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Arsenal in talks over deal for £13m international defender – ESPN

By on August 17, 2016

According to ESPN, Arsenal have opened talks with Fenerbache over a potential £13m move for centre-back Simon Kjaer this summer.

As we all know by now, Arsene Wenger is scouring the market trying to buy another centre-back after Gabriel joined Per Mertesacker on the sidelines with a serious ankle injury.

Our pursuit of prime target Shkodran Mustafi is stalling as we’re unwilling to meet Valencia’s reported £30m asking price so the boss is now looking in to cheaper alternatives.

Danish international Simon Kjaer emerged as a potential target on Tuesday when BBC journalist David Ornstein took to Twitter to claim Arsenal had short-listed the player along with Bayer Leverkusen’s Omer Toprak.

It looks like Arsene has now stepped-up his interest in Kjaer as ESPN claim that we’ve now made contact with Fenerbache to discuss a possible transfer before the window closes at the end of the month.

The report suggests that the Turkish club would be willing to do business at around £13m, making the 27-year-old a far cheaper alternative to Mustafi, so I can understand why he would appeal to Wenger.

Kjaer has plenty of experience on the international stage and played with Lille before joining Fenerbache last summer, while the likes of Chelsea and Napoli have also been linked with his name this summer.

I still think Arsenal will push to try and get a deal agreed for Mustafi but it makes sense to explore back-up options and Kjaer is certainly an interesting one as he ticks a lot of boxes. The main one being price, as at £13m he’d leave Arsene with plenty of money left over to spend on the top class striker that we so-desperately need.

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I’ve given up hope of us signing another centre-back before Saturday’s trip to Leicester so the main thing is we get a deal done next week to leave us enough time to pursue a front-man, as we’ll be in for another desperate campaign if we don’t bring in competition for Giroud.