Arsenal
Arsenal make move to sign La Liga star as Arteta looks to secure £93m triple swoop
Arsenal have made enquiries about signing Sergino Dest from Barcelona this summer but face competition from Juventus and Bayern
Arsenal have made an approach about signing Sergino Dest but will face stiff competition from Juventus and Bayern Munich to land the £26m-rated Barcelona full-back, according to reports via the Mirror.
Mikel Arteta is in the market for a new right-back as Hector Bellerin is being hotly tipped for a move away from the Emirates Stadium this summer with Inter Milan favourites for his signature.
A replacement for Bellerin would be needed and it appears Arsenal have identified Dest as a potential target as the Mirror are citing a report from Sport that claims the Gunners have made an approach to sign the young defender.
The Spanish publication suggests that Dest is valued at around £26m [€30m] and Barcelona may be prepared to cash-in to help ease their financial troubles. The Catalan club are unable to register any new players, including Lionel Messi, until they slash their wage bill so they desperately need to offload some assets and Dest could be seen as dispensable as Ronald Koeman has two other right-backs in Sergi Roberto and Emerson Royal.
This could give Arsenal hope of getting a deal agreed with Barca, however, they may find it difficult to lure the 20-year-old to North London as the report claims Dest is reluctant to leave the Nou Camp this summer.
Even if Barcelona make it clear to the player he needs to leave, Arsenal will still face plenty of competition as Sport says Juventus and Bayern Munich have also expressed their interest in signing the United States international.
Given Arsenal can’t offer any sort of European football this coming season, it’s am ambitious move to try and sign Dest and it would be a major coup if they were able to beat Juve and Bayern to his signature.
Dest is one of the best young full-backs in European football and impressed during his debut campaign at Barca having arrived from Ajax last summer so he’d be an excellent signing if Arsenal could somehow pull it off.
Arteta is looking to overhaul his squad ahead of the new season and the Arsenal boss has already snapped-up left-back Nuno Tavares from Benfica to act as support to Kieran Tierney.
Several other new faces are expected to arrive as the Mirror says a £50m deal has been agreed to sign centre-back Ben White from Brighton while midfielder Albert Lokonga is set to sign in a £17m deal from Anderlecht.
If Arsenal could also win the race to sign Dest for £26m, then Arteta would be about to pull off a £93m triple swoop also involving White and Lokonga, which would be a real statement of intent from the Londoners.
