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Arsenal eye audacious swoop to sign £70m star – deal would be a total game-changer

By on February 18, 2019

According to the Sun via the Daily Mail, Arsenal have emerged as serious contenders to sign Ajax defender Matthijs De Ligt and I think the £70m star would be a complete game-changer for the club.

Arsenal have been crying out for a commanding centre-back for years as we’ve failed to tighten up our defence properly and signings like Shkodran Mustafi have turned out to be a disaster.

Many fans blamed Arsene Wenger for our defensive woes but we’re arguably worse at the back this season under Unai Emery and it’s clear we need to revamp the back four/five this summer.

Hopefully Mustafi will be sold to the highest bidder to generate some extra funds, Laurent Koscielny is coming towards the end of his career and although Sokratis has shown promise at times, he’s struggled with niggling injuries since arriving from Dortmund.

Rob Holding enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign but who knows how long it will take for him to get back to top form after suffering a serious ACL injury so we desperately need some new blood in defence.

It seems we have identified an ambitious target as The Sun, via the Daily Mail, claims that Arsenal have now thrown their hat in to the ring to sign Ajax’s much sought-after captain Matthijs De Ligt.

The 19-year-old has progressed through the youth system at the Dutch champions to emerge as one of the most in-demand players in Europe and the paper says Ajax have slapped a £70m valuation on his head.

That’s obviously going to be an issue considering Emery will reportedly have around £40m to spend if we fail to qualify for the Champions League so we can forget about signing De Ligt if we don’t finish in the top four or win the Europa League.

However, if we do manage to return to Europe’s top table next season then the boss will have his transfer kitty boosted and I think De Ligt would be a sensational signing if we could somehow pull it off.

shkodran mustafi arsenal

The report says the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Juventus are all tracking the teen star so Arsenal will face plenty of competition but De Ligt has been working with Arsenal legends Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars in Amsterdam and the newspaper report says he’s an ‘admirer’ of Arsenal so we may just have a chance of luring him to the Emirates.

De Ligt is a HUGE talent as he’s one of the most composed centre-backs to emerge in a long time and he has it all. He’s strong, fast, great in the air, can bring the ball out from the back and reads the game superbly.

He was the first defender to win the Golden Boy award last season so I think he could be a real game-changer for Arsenal. We could build a new-look defence around him and he could have a similar impact as Virgil van Dijk has had at Liverpool.

I’d much rather see Arsenal spend some serious money on a top class player rather than put £20m-£25m on a couple of ageing defenders this summer. Let’s throw everything at De Ligt and rejuvenate the defence with one of the hottest centre-backs in the world right now.