Arsenal in talks to sign Ligue 1 star as Arteta looks to strengthen defence

Arsenal have held talks over a deal to sign Nice centre-back Malang Sarr as Mikel Arteta looks to strengthen his defensive options this summer, according to Goal.

Arteta expressed his desire to bring in quality additions over the coming weeks following Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Liverpool on Wednesday night and defence has been an area of concern for some time.

William Saliba will arrive from Saint-Etienne and Arsenal recently signed Pablo Mari on a permanent basis from Flamengo but Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Rob Holding and David Luiz have all proven to be unreliable once again this campaign.

Therefore, Arteta is believed to be in the market for another centre-back and Sarr has emerged as a prime target after he left Nice to become a free agent having failed to agree terms over an extension.

Spanish outlet Marca claimed earlier this month that Arsenal had offered the player a contract and although sources have told Goal that’s not yet the case, they did confirm talks have taken place over a potential deal.

Our interest in signing Sarr is clearly there but Goal says Arsenal are reluctant to commit to anymore new recruits until the end of the season as there is a real danger we’ll miss out on European football for the first time since 1995.

So we need to wait until the end of the season to finalise our transfer budget and the delay could see us miss out on Sarr as Goal claims Tornio are in advanced talks with the 21-year-old about taking him to Italy.

The report says Arsenal have lined-up Reims centre-back Axel Disasi as a potential back-up option but the fact Sarr is available on a free transfer will make him hugely attractive to the Gunners hierarchy given the state of our finances.

The youngster came through the youth ranks at Nice and made 119 first team appearances while he’s also represented France at various youth levels including U21 so he certainly looks to have a bright future ahead of him.

A deal would make a lot of sense for Arsenal as Sarr is a talented youngster who is available for nothing, he won’t demand huge wages and we should see a healthy return on our investment if we wanted to sell in the future.

Therefore, I think it would be an excellent piece of business if we could lure Sarr to the Emirates but it looks like we’ll have to wait until the end of the season before any formal offer is made. Let’s hope it won’t be too late.