An Arsenal man has reportedly had ‘positive initial contacts’ with a European giant, but Liverpool could yet intervene in their potential transfer.
Arsenal’s options in defence have grown in recent seasons. Mikel Arteta has added to his side with versatile options like Ben White, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori.
All are capable of playing as both full-backs and centre-backs, and do a good job in either position.
As a result, some other defenders could be surplus to requirements. Oleksandr Zinchenko played just 15 times in the Premier League last season, with youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly or one of the aforementioned options preferred.
It’s therefore believed that Zinchenko could be sold, and after he was wanted by Atletico Madrid in January, they have kept their eyes on him.
Indeed, in January, it was said that there were serious talks ongoing for Atletico to sign the left-back, who wanted to leave Arsenal.
Now, Caught Offside suggests the Gunners will let Zinchenko go for €15million (£12.8m) and he has had ‘positive initial contacts’ over the summer move to Atletico.
Talks have not gotten underway between the clubs yet, but it’s believed the deal could progress ‘quickly’ if they do.
Much of that will reportedly depend on the availability of other targets, such as Liverpool’s Andy Robertson. He’s on the radar of Atleti, as well as Tyrick Mitchell and Lucas Digne.
Fabrizio Romano recently reported that Robertson is the top target, and he’d like to head to Atletico if possible, but the LaLiga side would like to get the deal done for free.
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As such, that hinges on Liverpool being willing to let go of a stalwart, who has a year left on his deal, before he’s supposed to exit, while knowing they could receive a fee from him if they wanted.
If the Reds do allow that to happen, or perhaps agree to let Robertson go for a small fee, it seems Zinchenko might well be forgotten about, with Diego Simeone’s men instead landing the Liverpool left-back.
Atleti will not wait forever to see if they can get Robertson, but there’s a long time left until the end of the summer to get an answer on that, so it’s unlikely they’ll fully pursue a deal for Zinchenko yet without knowing if that will be possible.
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