Exclusive – €40million player has verbally agreed to join Arsenal

Arsenal were shocking at the back last season and conceded no fewer than 51 goals in the Premier League under Arsene Wenger. New boss, Unai Emery, has to strengthen the back line by signing top defenders.

One highly rated center half linked with the Gunners is Turkish international and Freiburg starlet Caglar Soyuncu.

Arsenal’s head of recruitment, Mislintat, has been in talks with the 22-year-old defender’s agent, who recently told Turkish Football that a fee needs to be agreed with the Bundesliga club if the north Londoners want to sign his client.

Now, a source close to the player in Freiburg has told Calcio Insdier that Soyuncu has verbally agreed to join Arsenal, he told his agent he wants the move, however, the major stumbling block in the deal is his price tag.

Read: Report – Arsenal have made move to sign €138,000-a-week star

The source said that the German club almost got relegated last season (finished 15th) and are asking for a big fee which the PL side are unlikely to match. The former Altinordu defender scored 1 goal in 26 league appearances in the last campaign.

Calcio Insider could not get any figure from the source about how much the Bundesliga side want for Soyuncu but upon research, we got a value from the British sources.

As per The Sun, the Turkish center back is rated at 35 million pounds (€40million). Moreover, last month, The Telegraph reported that Arsenal are prepared to pay 35 million pounds to sign him, however, this report was published before Emery joined the club.

After the Spaniard moved to the Emirates, The Guardian reported that the former Sevilla boss has only got a budget of £50million to reinforce his team.

More recently, London Evening Standard have reported that the Gunners are close to spending that budget on signing players like Torreira (DM), Leno (GK) and Papastathopoulos (CB). If the trio arrive and/or if the reports regarding the budget are concrete then it is possible that Arsenal might not have enough cash to agree a fee with Freiburg for Soyuncu.