Boss Unai Emery has reportedly made an offer to bring Inter Milan left-back and Switzerland International Ricardo Rodriguez to the Emirates.
Emery has already done some wonderful transfer business over the last few months and has really shown he knows how to pick up a transfer bargain, with the capture of former Bayer Leverkusen stopper Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira two stand-out acquisitions.
But he may now be forced to delve back into his transfer kitty in the next few days with news our first choice options will be unavailable for the first few weeks of the season.
Sead Kolasinac has a knee injury that might keep him out until October, and Nacho Monreal has returned from the World Cup with a minor knee injury of his own, leaving Emery without a senior left-back for around the opening three weeks of the season.
And right now that leaves us with just the talented Ainsley Maitland-Niles to step up and possibly feature against Premier League Champions Manchester City on Sunday, something which has left many fans worried about as the youngster still has a long way to go before he is able to deal with the big named players City currently have.
And although the youngster is very highly-regarded at the club and tipped to have a bright future under Unai Emery, he is not ready to be the clubs left-back and would find it very difficult to cope with the quality of the Champions come Sunday.
That has led to Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport claiming we have lodged a bid for Rodriguez, reported to be around the £30 million mark.
However, despite our confidence a deal could be struck in the coming days, it is believed the Italians wants closer to £35 million for the services of the Swiss International as they do not have much time themselves to find a suitable replacement if Rodriguez does leave the club.
They only signed Rodriguez last summer for a relatively small fee, but in the world of football money talks and they will do a transfer deal if the price is right, and the player himself could be interested in joining his international team-mates Xhaka and Lichtsteiner in North London.
But if they cannot agree on a deal for Rodriguez, then Emery needs to re-think the idea of letting Calum Chambers depart the club and join Fulham on-loan, as the versatile Englishman could come on and do a very good job covering both Monreal and Kolasinac until they both return from their respective injuries.
Iomie