With Arsene Wenger having made just one addition to the Arsenal first team squad before jetting off to Singapore for the first phase of pre-season, many football observers have been left wondering whether the Frenchman has completed his transfer business for the summer.
Not according to the Daily Star he hasn’t, as the paper is reporting that Wenger is styepping up his pursuit of the Greece international centre back Kostas Manolas. This is the second summer transfer window in a row that the Gunners have been linked with Manolas, but last year he ended up signing for the Serie A club Roma instead.
He had a very good debut season for them as well, cementing his place in the back four of Rudi Garcia and helping the club to second place in the Italian league. You might think that this makes Roma more likely to challenge for the title than Arsenal next season, but when you see that they were a massive 17 points off Juventus in the table and that this was the same situation and same points tally as the previous season, you can see why Arsenal might be tempting to the defender.
Roma also failed to get out of their Champions League group and were then blasted out of the Europa League with a heavy home defeat to fellow Italian side Fiorentina. So assuming that Wenger really is keen and that we can persuade Roma to sell, surely Manolas would accept the move. But would this be the final transfer of the summer for Arsenal or do we still need more?