Arsenal’s £48m double signing
Arsenal are closing in on the £48million double signing of Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno and Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira as new manager Unai Emery continues to overhaul the defensive spine of his squad.
Emery has already added two defenders with the free transfer of Stephan Lichtsteiner and a £16million deal for Borussia Dortmund’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
Goalkeeper and central midfield have been two other priorities and, following the start of talks last week, deals are now close for both players. The move for Leno, who would cost around £22million and narrowly missed out on a place in the Germany World Cup squad, suggests that either Petr Cech or David Ospina will be sold.
Both keepers have one year remaining on their contracts and, while Cech has generally been the No1, he had a mixed season.
Leno is 26 and has been a regular in the Leverkusen team, as well as playing six matches for Germany and being part of their squad in last summer’s Confederations Cup.
Arsenal have also been in advanced negotiations with Sampdoria for holding midfielder Torreira. The 22-year-old is in Russia with Uruguay for the World Cup and talks with Sampdoria have focused on the structure of the payments, with Arsenal ready to spend in excess of £25million if the fee is spread over several years.
They are also interested in 17-year-old Paris Saint-germain midfielder Yacine Adli and contract offers have been made to both Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere. Adli has been capped in various international age groups by France and was given his senior debut at PSG by Emery.
Emery is having to manage a restricted budget after big spending on wages and fees over the previous two years amid what will be a second successive season out of the Champions League. Early transfer activity, then, is likely also to have been influenced by expectations of some sales later this summer.