According to the Mirror, European giants AC Milan are set to take pole position in the race to sign Bayern Munich centre-back Jerome Boateng, slashing Arsenal’s hopes to land the experienced defender.
Mirror Football add that the Gunners had already been in contact with Bayern Munich regarding the 31-year-old, this latest development is a massive blow to Arsenal’s hopes of bolstering their defence this month.
The report also highlights that the World Cup winner is eyeing an exit during the January transfer window in order to boost his chances of regular first-team football.
Read More: Barcelona set to hijack Arsenal’s move for long-term target.
The ace has made 15 appearances across all competitions this season, though it seems as though this was only due to the Bavarians having some injuries in central defence.
Sky Sports claimed that the experienced defender would be available this month for £12.8m.
Perhaps this could prove to be a blessing in disguise for the Gunners, with all respect to Boateng, it would seem wise for us to eye a move for a central defender that could form the foundation of the side for many years to come.
With Mikel Arteta experiencing quite a decent start to his reign as Arsenal boss, now seems like the perfect time for us to shake-up our team and attempt to build a side capable of taking us back to the top in the near future.
Gazidis trying it on yet again.
AC Milan can take Boateng if they want, since they like to collect old players due to their financial issues
Arsenal need someone like Bas Dost and Wout Weghorst more than another CB. Even Man United are chasing a tall target man like Raul Jimenez
Yannick Poulsen is also a very interesting one. Currently playing second fiddle to Werner.
I think we should be already looking for a successor for Auba/Laca.
Myron Boadu and Donyell Malen killing it at Eredivisie, and they’re just 18- and 20-years old.
Yussuf Poulsen*
Poulsen could be a good option too, but I think he would want to be a starter
If we can’t score after sixty minutes in a game, we need a towering target man to change our attacking method
Agreed, Boateng is way past his best and Gazidis would only want him if we do, hence my comment.
Same thing we said about Johny Evans and Cahill. Johny Evans is better than any defender playing for Arsenal today. Juventus has one of the oldest defenders in Europe but who is better than them? Mourinho said they should be teaching defence at Havard University. Age is not that important for a defender who is just 31. Lots of them in the EPL and Europe. Boateng is better than anything we have now. Thiago Silva of PSG is 35 and captain. Go figure. Maldini played until he was 40 and played in Champions League finals late into his thirties and still scoring.
We are like Milan a mid table team with a glorious past … they are welcome to him we need quality players to start rebuilding process not retreads
I mean this is good news, rather Milan get him than us get stuck with him.
My opinion on this transfer window is that it would be better for us not to sign any one at all than sign the wrong players. We’re going through a rebuild, the last thing we need is to sign older declining players we can not shift.
Would much rather see what Arteta can do with this squad of players and then use summer to build rather than wasting our money on the wrong players with inflated transfer fees in January.
Thank you AC Milan!