Arsenal make offer worth £26.5m to sign 23-year-old star after agent confirms talks

The January transfer window is in full swing so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Today, Arsenal have made an offer for Mykola Matviyenko…

Arsenal have submitted an offer worth a total of £26.5m to sign Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko on an initial loan deal this month, according to reports coming out of Ukraine. 

Mikel Arteta has already suggested he’s in the market for a central defender after losing Calum Chambers for the rest of the season to a serious knee injury and Matviyenko has emerged as a potential target.

Ukrainian outlet Komanda 1 carried quotes from the 23-year-old’s agent earlier this week that confirmed Arsenal were in talks over a potential deal to sign the talented centre-back before the window closes at the end of January.

Sky Sports News reported on Thursday that Shakhtar valued Matviyenko at £30m and it appears Arsenal have now tested their resolve with an offer that would guarantee them a fee close to their valuation.

Komanda 1 claim today that Arsenal have offered to pay £4.5m to take Matviyenko on loan for the rest of the season with an obligation to pay a further £22m to make the move permanent in the summer, meaning the entire deal is worth £26.5m. Fellow Ukrainian news outlet Football UA are also running a very similar story and it’s been picked up by several UK newspapers.

It would make sense for Arsenal to try this type of deal as we’re strapped for cash right now with serious money not expected to be available to Arteta until the summer. Therefore, an initial loan with obligation to buy would be a good way of getting around our financial constraints.

It remains to be seen how Shakhtar will respond to our reported offer but Matviyenko has just 18 months left on his current deal so they are under pressure to cash-in before his value drops any further and our deal would make the young defender the second highest sale in their history.

Matviyenko has been with Shakhtar his entire career and he’s forged a reputation as one of the best defenders in the country while he’s also represented Ukraine 20 times at senior international level.

Arsenal badly need reinforcements in defence as Shkodran Mustafi simply can not be relied upon any longer and Matviyenko sounds like he has the potential to develop into a fine player. He must be doing something right as he’s also been linked with Man City recently so I think he’d be a good signing if we could get a deal agreed.