Arsenal Ready To Rival Liverpool With £14.9m Bid For La Liga Winger

With the summer transfer window in full swing, managers are working hard trying to strengthen their squads ahead of next season so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Arsenal enter the race for Denis Cheryshev….

Arsenal have joined Liverpool in the chase for Denis Cheryshev and are ready to table a bid worth as much as £14.9m for the Russian international winger, according to the Express.

Cheryshev joined Madrid as a teenager and came through their youth system before being promoted to the B team in 2008 where he scored 22 goals in 109 appearances over the course of the next four years.

The Russia winger has spent the last two seasons out on loan at Sevilla and more recently Villarreal but it doesn’t look like he’s done enough to convince Rafa Benitez that he deserves to be a part of his first team squad as he’s being tipped to leave the Bernabeu on a permanent basis this summer.

Liverpool have been strongly linked with a move for the 24-year-old in recent weeks and the Telegraph reported just yesterday that the Merseysiders are lining-up a formal offer as Brendan Rodgers looks to further strengthen his attacking options following the sale of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City.

However, it looks like the Anfield giants are now going to face some stiff competition as the Express are citing reports coming out of Spain which claim that Arsenal are ready to join the race for Cheryshev’s signature.

The newspaper suggests that Madrid may be willing to do business at a reasonable rate with the Gunners understood to be ready to test their resolve with a bid worth in the region of £14.9m over the coming days.

It remains to be seen how Madrid would react if such an offer was put on the table but you’d image they may give it serious consideration as Cheryshev has made just one appearance for their first team and doesn’t look like he has a long-term future at the club.

Arsene Wenger has been tipped to bring in a striker this summer but I must admit I wasn’t expecting him to look for another winger – particularly after Theo Walcott committed his future to the club having signed a four-year extension last week.

Therefore, it comes as something of a surprise to read that Wenger is prepared to spend close to £15m on Cheryshev, who I can only assume would be nothing more than a squad player as he’s highly unlikely to get in the first team ahead of the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil or Theo Walcott.

Cheryshev is predominantly a left-winger but he can also play on the right hand side so he would be a useful player for either Wenger or indeed Rodgers to have in their squads.

READ MORE –> Arsenal transfer news | Liverpool transfer news

However, I’d question the wisdom of the player joining either Arsenal or Liverpool at this point in his career as I don’t think he’ll get enough regular game-time to warrant the move.

He’s now 24 years old so he needs to start fulfilling his potential and the only way he’ll do that is by playing week in, week out, so I think he’d be better off joining a lower level club where he’ll play more often.

But obviously it’s his decision and I’m sure he’ll be tempted by the prospect of playing for illustrious clubs such as Arsenal and Liverpool, so we’ll have to see what he decides to do if the duo do follow up their interest with formal bids.