Arsenal ‘formal offer’ mooted for Barcelona star as ‘entourage’ make transfer stance ‘very clear’
Arsenal are planning to make a ‘formal offer’ for Barcelona defender Jules Kounde ahead of the summer transfer window, according to reports.
The Gunners beat Ipswich Town 4-0 at Portman Road on Sunday but Liverpool responded with a 1-0 win over Leicester City to put Arne Slot’s men one win away from the Premier League title.
But Arsenal made the pain of their Premier League performance this season easier by beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the Bernabeu to win their Champions League quarter-final 5-1 on aggregate.
Potential Champions League glory would only strengthen Arsenal’s position in the transfer market over the summer and Arteta has already guaranteed a “big summer”.
Arteta recently commented: “It’s going to be a big one and we are very excited about it.
“The way we planned the five first summers, they were going to be very big and they were going to have different objectives because the turnaround of players and the objective of those windows was going to be different.
“But now when you are going to go again, we want to increase the depth of the squad but as well we want to increase the quality and the skills that we need to go to the next step.”
And one player they are looking to bring in is Barcelona defender Kounde – who can play at centre-back or right-back – and reports in Spain are claiming that the Frenchman ‘has already responded’ to an ‘offer’ from Arsenal.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is ‘showing strong interest in securing his services for next season’ with the Spaniard seeing Kounde ‘as an ideal addition to his defensive system’.
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Despite their interest the France international has ‘already informed’ the north London club and Barcelona that he ‘wants to stay’ at the Camp Nou.
However, the report insists that Arteta will keep trying despite Kounde’s insistence that he has ‘no intention of leaving’ Barcelona in the summer.
The report continues:
‘Sources in England claim that Mikel Arteta hasn’t thrown in the towel and that Arsenal could return with a formal offer in the coming weeks, which could be around €60-65 million . However, the player’s entourage has been very clear: he isn’t listening to offers and isn’t considering a change of scenery at this point in his career.
‘Furthermore, Arteta himself is aware that time is running out, as Barça has no intention of opening negotiations and the player has not asked to leave. Arsenal will have to look for alternatives in the market , knowing that their priority target has decided to stay at Camp Nou.’
