Burnley win race for highly-rated Arsenal defender

Arsenal defender set to sign for Championship side

Former Premier League outfit Burnley are in advanced talks with Arsenal for the signature of 22-year-old center back Daniel Ballard.

The Northern Ireland international has had two fantastic loan spells at Blackpool and then Millwall and is now set to earn the biggest move in his career.

The Athletic reported that new manager Vincent Kompany was an instrumental figure in persuading the Arsenal man to move to Turf Moor.

The fee being reported is a meager £2m. But the Gunners have added performance-related add-ons. If Ballard performs well at the Lancashire-based outfit, it will be a win-win situation for both the clubs.

The most important clause in the deal is that Arsenal will have the opportunity to match the bids of any future suitors.

Even though they are letting the young defender leave, they won’t be removing him from their sights. If Ballard continues the trajectory, he’s on at the moment, rejoining the North London outfit will be very much on the cards.

With the Clarets set to lose whole host of names from the squad, former Man City captain Kompany has a proper rebuilding task on his hands.

And the former City icon might be getting the perfect player in his rebuild in the Irishman. Ballard has been attracting a lot of interest in the past few months.

Despite not playing a single game for the senior team of Arsenal, he has made an impressive 10 appearances for his national side.

With Ben Mee and James Tarkowski no more at Turf Moor, Ballard will hope to continue to rise and shine at his new home.

Yash Bisht

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