Arsenal are hopeful of agreeing a deal to sign Cristhian Mosquera after holding talks with Valencia over the Spain under-21 international.
Mikel Arteta is keen to strengthen his defensive options and has identified Mosquera – who came through Valencia’s academy and has played 90 games for the first team – as their main target to provide back-up to William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães.
Arsenal are scheduled to hold more talks after their initial offer of about £16m for the 21-year-old, who also has interest from Real Madrid, was rejected. They are expected to return with a slightly improved bid that could persuade Valencia to sell. Personal terms are not expected to be an issue for Mosquera, who featured against England in Spain’s quarter-final defeat at the European Under-21 Championship last Saturday.
Arsenal are also expected to wrap up the signing of Christian Nørgaard from Brentford in the coming days having agreed a fee worth up to £15m for the Denmark midfielder. He will be joined by Martín Zubimendi from Real Sociedad but Thomas Partey looks poised to leave after failing to agree a contract extension.
Nottingham Forest’s hopes of signing Timothy Weah and Samuel Mbangula from Juventus for a combined £19.6m have been dashed after the pair rejected the move.
The United States forward Weah – a son of Ballon d’Or winner George – and the Belgian winger Mbangula were left out of the Juventus squad beaten 5-2 by Manchester City on Thursday having told the Italian club that they were not interested in joining the Premier League side.
Bournemouth, Everton and Leeds are also understood to be interested in Weah, who was on loan at Celtic in 2019.
