After losing Laurent Koscielny to yet another long-term injury at the back end of last season, new Arsenal manager Unai Emery immediately made defensive recruitment a key part of his transfer policy, bringing in Greek international Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund.
However, Lazy Fan Sports can exclusively reveal that Emery is looking to add to his centre-back options further and, after exclusively reporting their interest in Manchester United’s Chris Smalling, they unfortunately look set to miss out on signing Leicester City star Harry Maguire.
Maguire was one of England’s World Cup heroes, assisting Harry Kane’s winner in the group game against Tunisia and scoring a bullet header in the 2-0 quarter-final win over Sweden.
The 25-year-old earned his starting berth in Russia ahead of more experienced big name players such as Manchester United’s Phil Jones and Chelsea’s Gary Cahill after a string of impressive performances for ninth-placed Leicester in the Premier league last season.
Arsenal set to miss out, again
The former Sheffield United man played in every single minute of the Foxes league campaign and was justly named their player of the season and players’ player of the season following his initial £12 million move from relegated Hull.
It is thanks to Maguire’s excellent league form last year that the Gunners are interested in making the England international a part of their squad.
Arsenal are looking to regain Champions League football after a disappointing sixth placed finish last year as well as crashing out of the Europa League in the semi-finals as they lost 2-1 on aggregate to eventual competition winners Atletico Madrid.
However, thanks to Maguire’s World Cup heroics in Russia the potential fee that Leicester are demanding for their star centre-back has skyrocketed and likely forced Arsenal to back out of any potential deal.
Manchester United are believed to have made Maguire their number one defensive transfer target and it would take a record fee for a defender to lure him away from the King Power Stadium but the Foxes plan to use part of the £60 million fee they received from Manchester City for Riyad Mahrez to make Maguire one of their highest-paid players.
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