With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and now, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart in June, behind closed doors. Arsenal FC resumed training this week, albeit in small groups only.
However, there are still plenty of question marks when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more as the days go by. Until football actually returns, we still have plenty of transfer news items to cover. So let’s take a spin through the Arsenal rumor mill in cyberspace.
We actually did two batches of Arsenal transfer rumors today, for the first set go here.
We start with the latest on winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who wants to stay put at AS Roma. Arsenal wants to get rid of him too, so it seems like a win-win transaction can be worked out, despite the wide valuation gap.
The 31-year-old is valued at €24 million by Arsenal, but Roma do not want to pay more than €18m. Thats according to Calciomercato, who also report that the bridge here could be 21-year-old Justin Kluivert.
However, he has a higher valuation than the Armenian national team captain, so there are still complexities here when it comes to getting this deal done.
Next we go to Mundo Deportivo, who report that Inter Milan are supposedly keen on signing Real Madrid right back Achraf Hakimi.
The 21-year-old, who has very much impressed while on loan at Borussia Dortmund, has been linked to Chelsea, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, among others. Beefing up the back line might be the nunber one priority for the Gunners this summer, and this would certainly be a solid acquisition for them.
Sticking with defense, and BVB for that matter, another target for Arsenal is 24-year-old Manuel Akanji. According to the Daily Mail, the Emirates are interested in signing him for £25 million this summer.
Akanji, who supports Manchester United, has learned English as third language, which is impressive, but even more notable is this- he’s picking up Spanish as his fourth language!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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