Arsenal & Chelsea Face Competition For German Starlet As Rodgers Steps Up Interest

Although the summer transfer window is officially closed that doesn’t stop clubs working hard behind the scenes to prepare for future signings, so we’ll keep you up-to-date with all the latest gossip. Today, interest mounts in Schalke’s Julian Draxler.

Arsenal and Chelsea face competition from Liverpool for the signing of Julian Draxler after Brendan Rodgers made a personal check on the Schalke starlet this week, according to the Daily Mail.

Draxler is now considered as one of the most sought-after young players in Europe after breaking in to the Schalke first team two years ago and has since become a regular in Joachim Low’s senior German international team set up.

His impressive displays have caught the attention of several top clubs throughout Europe with reports in the summer claiming that Arsenal and Chelsea tried to lure him to the Premier League before he eventually opted to sign a new deal at the Veltins-Arena.

While the London duo are understood to have retained their interest in the 20-year-old, it seems they now face further competition for his signature with the Mail claiming that Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers was in the stands on Wednesday night to make a personal check on the attacker.

Rodgers was spotted among the crowd that saw Draxler pick up the Man-of-the-Match award as he opened the scoring during a 2-0 win for Schalke over Basel. The newspaper suggests that the Northern Irishman has identified Draxler as a potential long-term replacement for 33-year-old skipper, Steven Gerrard.

However, it appears Rodgers may have some work to do in trying to persuade the German international to opt for a switch to Anfield as Draxler recently fuelled speculation he could move to the Gunners after admitting he has been speaking to Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil about life in north London.

“I have always said English teams are very big clubs and Arsenal is of course one of them.

“Of course I sometimes speak to Mesut or Per about the team, about the club, and they always have good words and they tell me nice things. You never know what happens in the summer but Arsenal is a very, very nice team.”

“They always have very young players, they play attractive football and that’s what I like.” [source: Mirror]

Arsenal proved with the signing of Mesut Ozil in the summer they are now ready to pay big-money to sign the top talent and they, along with Chelsea or Liverpool, would need to dig deep if they want to sign Draxler, as he has a €45m (£38m) buy-out clause in his current contract.

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