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Arsenal boss ready to do deal at £20m for 27-year-old star

By mac14 on June 22, 2017

According to The Sun, Arsenal have slapped a £20m valuation on Wojciech Szczesny but Arsene Wenger is in no rush to strike a deal with Juventus for the unsettled goalkeeper.

Szczesny has enjoyed two excellent seasons out on loan at AS Roma and with just one year remaining on his current contract with Arsenal, the stopper is expected to complete a permanent move this summer.

The Sun claim Arsenal would be happy for the Polish international to stay and fight for his place as David Ospina is set to leave this summer with a move to Turkey being lined-up.

However, the paper says Szczesny doesn’t want to play second fiddle to Petr Cech and is keen to secure a move away from the club rather than spend another season in north London.

Juventus have been strongly linked in recent weeks with the Serie A champions reportedly tabling a cheeky £4m opening offer as Max Allegri looks to bring Szczesny in as Gianluigi Buffon’s long-term replacement.

It was initially thought that Arsenal had set the asking price at £13m, however, The Sun claim we’ve now made it clear we want £20m for the 27-year-old after watching Jordan Pickford join Everton for £30m.

I think Szczesny is certainly worth £20m in today’s inflated market so it’s good to see the club demanding higher fees as for too long we’ve sold our players on the cheap.

Szczesny is due to return to pre-season training next month and while he may hope to have secured his move by that point, the newspaper report claims Wenger is in no rush to do a deal and will hold out for Juventus to meet our asking price.

READ: Agent speaks out amid reports of £17m Arsenal bid

That means we could see this transfer saga drag out for several weeks, which is fine by me as I still retain a glimmer of hope that we’ll be able to persuade Szczesny to sign a new deal and stay at the club.

I’ve always been a huge fan and there is no doubt he’s matured over the past couple of years and I actually think he would be close to being our No.1 ahead of Cech if he did stay – although rumours of a rift with Wenger will probably put an end to any hope he’ll remain at Arsenal for too much longer.