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Arsenal are hoping to convince Sporting Club de Portugal into letting them loan defender Goncalo Inacio, by including a €60m purchase clause in the deal.

That’s according to Ataque, a Jornal de Notícias supplement, who cover Arsenal’s idea to get ahead of the competition for the highly rated defender today.

The newspaper explains that the Gunners have a ‘well-defined plan’ to secure Inacio’s signature in the January transfer market, knowing that Sporting will only let him go for €60m, the value of his release clause.

They are willing to pay that figure but rather than put the money up front next month, will instead propose a loan deal until the end of the season and a mandatory purchase option to make up any difference.

The deal would be completed in January but only concluded in the summer of next year, ‘with the approval of funds’.

It’s the type of deal that Sporting have approved in the past, indeed they did it last year, loaning Pedro Porro to Tottenham until the end of the season for €5m in a deal that included a mandatory purchase clause of €40m, which Spurs later paid to get the defender permanently.

Whether they will accept again when it comes to Inacio isn’t made clear but that’s the deal Arsenal want to propose to get their man.

They’re seemingly keen to push ahead as quickly as possible as they know that Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester United, alongside Real Madrid in Spain, are all following the defender closely.