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Arsenal in talks to sign South American defender – reports

By on July 15, 2016

According to the Daily Star, Arsenal are in talks with Inter Milan to try and thrash out a deal to sign Colombian international defender Jeison Murillo this summer.

Arsene Wenger has already signed midfielder Granit Xhaka while a deal has been agreed to bring in young striker Takuma Asano but the boss is also in the market for another centre-back.

We’ve been linked with a whole host of names in recent weeks including Kostas Manolas with reports today suggesting we’re ready to offer the Roma man a bumper contract but Gazzetta dello Sport claimed last month that Inter star Murillo was also on Wenger’s radar.

It looks as though we’ve stepped-up our interest in the South American defender as the Daily Star claim that Arsenal officials are now in talks with the Serie A club over a potential deal.

No fee is mentioned in the article but previous reports have indicated we could land the 24-year-old for around £15m – which is a figure that’s well within our price-range.

Murillo only joined Inter from Granada last summer and was excellent during his debut season in Italy so I’m sure they’d ideally like to keep hold of him, however, with a £39m deficit to make up in order to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, they may be forced to cash-in.

I personally think a centre-back needs to be a priority this summer as I still have concerns over Mertesacker and Gabriel failed to take his chance last season to prove he can be Koscielny’s long-term partner.

Ideally I’d like to see a defender with experience in the Premier League come in but there are a real lack of potential targets around so Murillo could be an interesting option as he was in great form in Serie A last year.

MORE: Striker pleads for Arsenal move following talks with Wenger

Let’s see how things go but the important thing is we manage to sign a new centre-back AND a new striker this summer. If Wenger can get the right players in, then we’ll have a squad capable of going all they way in the title race next season.