A report in the Daily Mirror has claimed that Arsenal have been told by Valencia that a deal for Shkodran Mustafi will cost them £50m, but the La Liga side’s interest in Chelsea winger Pedro could boost the Gunners’ chances of landing the centre-back for a smaller fee.
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World Cup victor Per Mertesacker and Brazilian centre-half Gabriel Paulista are both sidelined with injuries as Laurent Koscielny made his return at Leicester City.
‘Mustafi is one of a number of players we are looking at, but, yes, negotiations are ongoing’.
Wenger also hit out at criticism of his club’s transfer policy after he once again came under pressure from supporters to spend money on new players.
The 52-year-old is quite right in his verdict considering how Mustafi’s release clause was believed to be £42.1 million, especially so considering how Valencia need money and shouldn’t be in any position to hold Arsenal to ransom. “I would say that’s the first time the away fans have audibly gone after Wenger”.
“Spending the money itself is not a quality”.
“He was not ready [against Liverpool] and I thought ‘should I have taken a gamble or not?’, but because we already lost two defenders [Per Mertesacker and Gabriel] if I lost another one for 2-3 months we’d have a massive problem”.
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The summer transfer window is drawing to a close so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe.
