Two days ago The Telegraph reported that Arsenal were expected to offer Valencia £20m ‘inside 48 hours’ for Shkodran Mustafi.
The German international looks to be an obvious signing for Arsene Wenger, especially given Arsenal’s injury issues in central defence. Familar with England, having been part of Everton’s youth set up for two and a half years, Mustafi is a great all round package.
Experienced, flexible (he can play at right back if needed), likely available for a reasonable fee, not on huge wages, and still only 24 years of age.
Come on Arsene, sign Mustafi.
Except, there’s been no bid yet. Spanish newspaper Marca on Wednesday say that the word from Valencia is that any £20m/€25m Arsenal offer ‘has not officially arrived yet’.
For the record, the ‘officially’ in that probably isn’t hinting that an offer arrived ‘unofficially’, it’s just the flow of the sentence.
There’s a willingness in Spain to believe the reports from England of interest, because it generates a story for them, but there’s nothing independent coming out which would back up any contact being made with Valencia.
There’s still a couple of weeks left of the window, but it’s a surprise Arsenal haven’t swooped in and got this done. Mustafi and Valencia were in England last week training, a 30 minute drive away from Arsenal’s training centre. That was a perfect opportunity to tie something up with the minimum of fuss, it wasn’t taken.
There’s no reason to doubt Arsenal interest, it’s been reliably reported and it’s a glaringly obvious transfer. But, as it stands, the situation is the same as it was last week, other than Gabriel Paulista getting injured since then.
