Arsenal establish contacts with Euro giants over potential transfer of France international

Arsenal have reportedly been in contact with Barcelona over a potential transfer deal for French defender Jules Kounde, though it seems he won’t be available unless a club comes in with a big-money offer.

The former Sevilla defender, who can play centre-back or right-back, looks like the kind of player who could be a good fit for Mikel Arteta’s side, though they would arguably benefit more from bringing in someone on the left-hand side.

Arsenal already have Ben White as their first-choice right-back, while Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu can also play there, whereas their left-sided options are slightly less convincing as Oleksandr Zinchenko has been out of form, while Jakub Kiwior is better off in the middle.

Kounde is undoubtedly a fine option and Arsenal would do well to perhaps have him as a squad player option at centre-back, though he’d probably be too expensive considering he’d be unlikely to shift either one of William Saliba or Gabriel Magalhaes out of Arteta’s starting XI.

Gerard Romero says Arsenal have been in touch with Barca about Kounde, but it seems they’re not too keen to sell the player anyway, so it remains to be seen if this will end up amounting to much.

Kounde transfer: Will we see him in the Premier League at some point?

Chelsea were notably close to signing Kounde when he was still at Sevilla, though he chose Barcelona at that point and he’s mostly performed at quite a high level for the Catalan giants.

Still, some might also argue that Barcelona will have expected more from Kounde, so there might be room for the club to shift him out at some point, if anyone is willing to pay up for the 25-year-old.

Kounde still looks like he’d do a job for Chelsea, even if there doesn’t seem like an immediate need for him at Arsenal, while others like Manchester United and Liverpool would also surely benefit from his presence at the back.