Arsenal monitoring van Dijk situation

It is no longer news that Laurent Koscielny has a long term achilles problem which means Arsene Wenger may have to sign another centre back this summer or risk the Gunners being stranded when the season starts and their annual injury crisis strikes. It would be a huge gamble to ignore Koscielny’s injury issues this season, and experts at online-betting.org have the odds of Arsenal keeping a cleansheet without Koscielny against Liverpool at 15/4.

Gabriel who is starting to look like the player he was in the La liga is rumoured to be on his way back to Spain with Valencia said to be keen on signing him, and Mertesacker is no longer reliable. Wenger simply must sign another centre back for the club this summer if they want to compete for honours on all fronts.

And Gunners could well have been given a boost in the pursuit of one of their key targets – Virgil van Dijk. The Dutchman reportedly handed in a transfer request at Southampton this week in a bid to force a move. Although Chelsea and Liverpool are said to be interested in the signing of the 26-year-old Dutchman, Arsenal have the longest interest in the player.

Recall when he was at Celtic Arsenal were said to be keen on signing him but he ended up going to Southampton obviously because Wenger is not convinced? Arsenal could have signed him for £13m, the amount Southampton paid to Celtic to sign him, but will now have to pay upward of £45 million if they want to stand a chance of signing him.

But the good news is, quotes attributed to him when he was first linked with a move to Arsenal ( as dug out by Dailystar) shows he will like to play for Arsenal should the opportunity raise.

Arsenal are an amazing club,” van Dijk said. “It’s a big club with a great history but so are Celtic and I’m very happy here just now.

“I just want to play well and we will see what happens in the future. There are stories but until there are bids I can’t say anything. I have ambitions but Celtic is an amazing club with a lot of history. There is no rush to leave but you never know in the future.”

Also, earlier this month Josh Landy of the Footballistically Arsenal podcast claimed Wenger met with Virgil van Dijk in an hotel in May and the talks was positive with the player said to be keenly interested in signing for Arsenal but needed assurances about Wenger’s future which the Frenchman couldn’t give as a result of his then contractual situation with Arsenal.

Going by this and the quote above, I think Arsenal have a real chance of signing Virgil van Dijk this summer if Wenger is ready to pay the asking price for him.

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