Arsenal being ‘close’ to signing Shkodran Mustafi, is a story that has dragged on for a number of weeks now. Arsenal were apparently going to sign the defender last week, before the medical was supposedly moved to a later date. It meant that Arsenal not only missed out on having a well recognised central defender against Liverpool, but that the Gunners were also largely unprepared in defence against Leicester as well. Now according to the latest reports, The Gunners will finally complete their fourth summer signing this coming Wednesday.
Arsenal have so far signed Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Takuma Asano, the latter two of which are not expected to participate in much first team activity this season. It’s time for Wenger to pull his finger out and sign a more experienced player now, especially with the close of the summer window right around the corner.
According to several sources, Arsenal have agreed personal terms over the move of Mustafi from Valencia, but the two clubs have not been able to agree on a transfer fee. That is the stage at which most sources would agree. Football journalist Emanuele Giulianelli however is confident that Mustafi will be a Gunner by Wednesday, with a fee now officially accepted.
Giulianelli said: “Valencia are delaying hoping for other clubs to compete. If not, Mustafi deal should be completed by Wednesday! Apparently Arsenal’s bid for Mustafi was €25m + 3m (£21.7m + £2.6m) bonus.”
Whilst it may be a start of something, Giulianelli’s statement cannot be taken as a certain truth. The journalist himself has even left room to back track should a deal not come off, by stating that Valencia are still ‘delaying’ over possible other clubs becoming interested in the player. If Valencia were ready to sell to Arsenal and they have not yet heard from any other clubs, then why are they withholding the transfer, knowing that they’ll apparently be willing to sell to Arsenal anyway.
Also if this is true that Valencia are holding out to see if other clubs will come in with a bid for the player, as a manager who wants and needs this type of signing, would you not be putting your foot down to ensure that Valencia gets on with the move? This is exactly the type of mucking around that Arsenal fans are used to when making transfers, because whilst one club is able to make deal’s happen in under a week, Arsenal’s transfer sagas last for months on end before the Gunners eventually miss out altogether.
If Arsenal have agreed a fee with Valencia and personal terms have already been set in stone for a while, then get the German international defender over to England for his medical now so we can wrap this deal up and move onto the next player.
By AH