Arsenal’s club-record £72m transfer for Nicolas Pepe is set to be announced imminently after the player underwent a medical at London Colney yesterday.
Pepe chose Arsenal over Napoli after his representatives finalised personal terms with the north London club and he is now set to become the third most expensive player in Premier League history.
The Gunners’ pursuit of Kieran Tierney continues unabated though as the club made a “major breakthrough” after restructuring their payment plan of instalments for the Scottish international, according to The Daily Mail.
Arsenal’s offer remains at £25m with the 22-year-old keen to make the move to the Premier League and the agreement of personal terms thought to be a formality.
Unai Emery is keen to bring in defensive reinforcements urgently as club captain Laurent Koscielny continues to attempt to force through his departure, having agreed terms with Rennes.
Shkodran Mustafi has emerged as a target for Monaco or Roma with Arsenal willing to part with the defender for £25-30m.
However, the defender’s agent poured water on the possibility of his departure – at least to Italy - claiming “there has been no contact with Roma or any other Italian club” to Roma News.
The two possible departures have forced Arsenal to step up their pursuit of another centre-back, despite spending £30m on William Saliba this summer – due to the player returning to St Etienne for a season on loan – and Juventus’ Daniele Rugani has emerged as a target.
Reports in Italy claim Arsenal’s approach to sign the defender on loan was swiftly rejected by Juventus. However, the Gunners are mooted to have returned with an improved offer for a two-year loan as well as signing Sami Khedira as part of the deal, with the Italian champions keen to offload the German.
Arsenal have opened talks with Matteo Guendouzi to pin the 20-year-old midfielder down to a new long-term contract.
The Frenchman, who signed for the Gunners for just £7m, is currently on £40,000-per-week.
