Defender Left Out Of Squad With Arsenal In Talks Over £30m Deal [Sky Sports]

The summer transfer window is in full swing so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe. Today, more on Arsenal’s pursuit of Shkodran Mustafi….

Shkodran Mustafi has been left out of the Valencia squad for tonight’s friendly as Arsenal remain locked in negotiations trying to trash out a £30m deal, according to Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekol.

Arsene Wenger is desperately trying to bring in another centre-back before the start of the season after seeing Gabriel and Per Mertesacker sidelined with serious injuries over the past few weeks.

Mustafi has emerged as our prime target and the Daily Mail reported earlier this week that we were ready to formalise our interest in the German international with a formal £30m offer over the coming days.

Widespread reports suggested that we’ve been locked in negotiations with Valencia and Sky Sports News journalist Kaveh Solhekol has now taken to Twitter to claim that talks are continuing as we try to thrash out a £30m deal.

With a proposed move to the Emirates in the pipe-line, it’s unsurprising that Mustafi has been left out of the Valencia squad for their pre-season clash with a Nigerian All-Star XI tonight.

He tweeted:

Arsenal negotiations to sign Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi are ongoing. Will cost about £30m

— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) August 10, 2016

Shkodran Mustafi has been left out of Valencia’s squad for tonight’s friendly against Nigeria All Stars

— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) August 10, 2016

We’ll have to wait and see how negotiations progress over the next 24 hours but we need to get a deal agreed quickly if we want to stand any chance of the 24-year-old being available to face Liverpool on Sunday afternoon.

With Gabriel and Mertesacker out, Wenger may be forced to rush Laurent Koscielny back in to the squad despite the fact he’s only returned to pre-season training this week following his extended post-Euro 2016 break.

Signing Mustafi would certainly ease the pressure on forcing Koscielny back too soon so let’s hope we manage to find a breakthrough in negotiations over the next day to give us time to get the medical done and the deal wrapped-up before the weekend.

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I think Mustafi would be an excellent addition as he’s developed in to one of the best central defenders in La Liga since joining Valencia from Sampdoria two years ago and is also a regular with the German national team.