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Arsenal agree personal terms with star, £47m deal to go through this summer

By on January 31, 2017

According to a report in the Express, Arsenal have agreed personal terms with Kostas Manolas ahead of a £47m move from Roma this summer.

Manolas has been linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium for some time with Arsene Wenger first identifying the centre-back during his time with Olympiacos between 2012-14.

The boss has maintained his interest in the Greek international ever since he joined Roma and Manolas’s agent, John Evangelopoulos, revealed earlier this month that we had seen a £34.6m bid rejected last summer.

Reports this month have suggested that Wenger is still keen on bringing the 25-year-old to north London and it appears we may have moved a huge step closer to wrapping up a deal.

That’s if you believe what the Express are saying, as the newspaper claims that we’ve now moved ahead of Chelsea in the race to land Manolas after agreeing personal terms with the defender.

The report says that Manolas will be allowed to leave at the end of the season after failing to agree a new deal at Roma and Arsenal are now expected to complete a £47m swoop this summer.

So….what to make of this speculation?

Well, I personally struggle to believe Arsenal will be spending £47m on a new centre-back just 12 months after splashing out £35m on the signing of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia.

The Express suggest that Manolas is being viewed as a replacement for Per Mertesacker, however, the German has recently had his contract extended until 2018 and we’ve also got Gabriel on the books.

Laurent Koscielny is still only 31 and is a permanent fixture in the team while Mustafi has settled in superbly during his first campaign. Not to mention we have Rob Holding coming through and he’s got a huge future ahead of him, while Calum Chambers is still on the books, so why on earth would we ‘waste’ £47m on another centre-back?

If, and it’s a big if, we were to sign another central defender in the summer I think he’d be as a third choice and only if Mertesacker or Gabriel were to leave, but there’s still no sense in spending huge money on a back-up defender.

So as much as I’m a fan of Manolas and think he’d be a success here in England, I just can’t see anything coming of this speculation….

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