Two stories from Plaza Deportiva have caught our eye on Tuesday. The first is a claim that Arsenal have submitted a €18m offer for Shkodran Mustafi.
We’d been asked to have a look at it, and it says ‘according to claims in England’, which would mean it’s nothing fresh.
Furthermore, a little extra digging would show the claim actually came from Italian journalist Emanuele Giulianelli. He’s the same guy who said Karim Benzema was set to arrive to sign for Arsenal on an August Sunday in 2015.
At the time of the Benzema claims it was easy to discredit, because Giulianelli had previously said Kostas Manolas had completed an Arsenal medical, Eduardo Vargas was joining Arsenal, and he’d also said Arsenal had opened talks to sign Edin Dzeko.
Not to forget him claiming Arsenal had agreed to pay Mario Balotelli €10m per season and that Demba Ba was an Arsenal player.
More recently, in March, the journalist said Manchester United were preparing a bid for Gonzalo Higuain that was higher than his buyout clause, and that Jose Mourinho had met Higuain’s brother and agreed terms on a £150k per week contract for the then Napoli striker.
There’s much more, but you get the gist.
Plaza Deportiva explain Valencia would rather sell other players, instead of Mustafi, so this is one that could drag on.
Much more interesting from Plaza Deportiva, although not positive, is them reporting that Mustafi left training today due to an injury issue, the extent of which is unknown yet.
Super Deporte also say there’s no injury update, but state Mustafi was able to walk off the pitch, without an obvious limp.
Maybe it’s all a ruse and Mustafi left the Valencia training camp, in Marlow, to travel the short distance and sign for Arsenal. Let’s hope so.
Or maybe Arsenal’s injury cruse has once again spread to players they’re merely linked with.
