Quantcast

Arsenal Table €15m Bid For Bundesliga Defender

By on August 28, 2014

Reports today are claiming that Arsenal have tabled a €15m (£11m) bid for Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Arsene Wenger has made no secret of his desire to sign another defender before the transfer window closes on Monday night following the sale of Thomas Vermaelen to Barcelona.

Several names have been linked in recent weeks and we’ve had to widen our search after missing out on a deal for Greek international Kostas Manolas – who joined Roma yesterday.

According to Sky Italia journalist Gianluca di Marzio, we have now opened talks with Borussia Dortmund and made a formal formal offer for Papastathopoulos believed to be worth €15m (£11m) plus bonuses.

Dortmund haven’t ruled out selling the 26-year-old, but are demanding nearer €25m (£20m) – which seems like a lot of money and I highly doubt Arsene will agree to pay that for a player who won’t even be a first team regular.

Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny are going to continue to be our main central defensive partnership, so Arsene is looking for back-up and he’s not likely to pay £20m for a 26-year-old squad player.

So unless Dortmund lower their demands, I don’t see anything coming of this. Manolas made more sense, as he went for around £10m, and that’s the kind of ball-park figure I can see us paying for another defender this summer.

2 Comments