Arsenal, Newcastle to battle for €10m Man City transfer target in January

Will Ford
Grimaldo Benfica

Arsenal and Newcastle are reportedly set to battle Juventus for the signing of Alejandro Grimaldo in January.

The left-back – who moved to Benfica from Barcelona in 2016 – has made over 250 appearances for the Portuguese side and has 20 goals and 52 assists to his name.


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The 26-year-old’s contract expires next summer, when he would be available on a free transfer, but a number of clubs – including Juventus, Arsenal and Newcastle – are interested in landin him on the cheap in January.

TuttoJuve (via Sport Witness) claim there is ‘talk of a figure of less than €10m’ for Grimaldo, with Arsenal and Newcatle both ‘on him’ along with the Serie A giants.

That would represent a good deal for any of the trio given Transfermarkt value the defender at £18m.

Grimaldo was thought to be among Pep Guardiola’s targets in the summer after Chelsea pinched top target Marc Cucurella.

It was even suggested that Grimaldo was tempted to hand in a transfer request to force through a move to Manchester City, who in the end opted to sign Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht for £11.7m.

Magpies boss Eddie Howe may be looking for left-back reinforcements with Dan Burn – primarily a centre-back – forced to play there in the absence of first choice Matt Targett.

Meanwhile, Arsenal signed Oleksandr Zinchenko in the summer to provide backup and competition for Kieran Tierney, but could use the Ukraine international in midfield were they to move for Grimaldo.

Another player Arsenal signed this summer was 19-year-old Brazilian Marquinhos, who was in tears as he opened the scoring for the Gunners in their 2-1 win over Zurich on Thursday.

His performance impressed Martin Keown, who compared the teenager to Serge Gnabry.

Keown said: “It’s the confidence, we talked about having that class in possession. I saw lots of that tonight from Marquinhos.

“Look at that pass from Fabio Vieira, great ball into the channel, we talked about Nketiah and his movement, and then a great pass off his weaker foot.

“And then the finish! The ball just lifts before it comes into him and it’s a wonderful finish from him.

“The first of many, hopefully. He’s got a huge future ahead of him.

“That’s a real opportunity now ahead of him. Bukayo Saka is only a couple of years older himself, but such is the quality he’s going to get chances.

“He looked a bit like a Gnabry type player. He’s short, stocky, explosive pace. He looked very classy. He picked and chose his moments cleverly, whipped a couple of crosses in. Really good quality. He kept on producing.

“I think it’s great news. We’ve seen Saka, we’ve seen Smith Rowe in this very competition start their careers. I think we’re seeing another star here in the making.”