Arsenal to take steps soon in bid to beat Chelsea to potential €80million transfer

Arsenal are reportedly set to take steps soon to try and beat the likes of Chelsea and Bayern Munich to the potential transfer of Sporting Lisbon defender Ousmane Diomande.

The Ivory Coast international looks one of the finest young centre-backs in Europe at the moment after his impressive form at Sporting, while he also previously caught Arsenal’s eye while he was at Danish club FC Midtjylland.

That’s according to Portuguese outlet O Jogo, who state that the Gunners are now preparing to step up their interest in Diomande, with decisive steps potentially coming soon, despite Chelsea and Bayern also being among his admirers.

Arsenal may find they have to pay big for Diomande, however, as O Jogo state that he has a release clause of €80million and it would take something close to that to convince Sporting to let him go this summer.

Diomande transfer: Do Arsenal need another defender?

While Diomande is a top talent who is surely good enough to strengthen Arsenal or any other top club, it’s perhaps debatable if he should be a priority for the north London giants right now.

Mikel Arteta has made this Arsenal team really solid at the back this season, with strong performances from the likes of William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White making them really hard to beat, so often keeping clean sheets and limiting their opponents to very few chances.

In attack, however, Arsenal are lacking, with Gabriel Jesus proving very injury prone and not contributing enough in front of goal when he has been fit, while the jury is still out on whether or not Kai Havertz can also be that prolific leading the line.

With Jurrien Timber also set to return from a lengthy injury, it’s hard to see where there’d be much room for Diomande, so it will be interesting to see if Sporting’s asking price ends up putting Arsenal off, perhaps letting Chelsea back in, with the Blues undoubtedly in need of a top young defender like this to come in as a long-term replacement for the ageing Thiago Silva.