Arsenal are set to spend big in the summer as they look to sign one of Europe’s top goalkeepers, according to reports. The North Londoners were busy in the winter transfer window with Henrikh Mkhitaryan arriving from Manchester United as a part of a swap deal that saw Alexis Sanchez move in the other direction.
While Francis Coquelin left the club for Valencia, Olivier Giroud was shipped out to Chelsea as Arsenal acquired the services of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund in a blockbuster £56million deal. However, it looks like Arsene Wenger is not satisfied after only spending on Aubameyang and has already started making plans for summer.
According to Evening Standard, the Gunners are eyeing a move for Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak, who is also a summer target of Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech received a lot of flak for his performance in the club’s 3-1 defeat against Swansea City this week, as a howler gifted the Welsh side the lead. The report further says that Wenger wants to bring in Oblak to replace the ageing Cech, who joined Arsenal in 2015 from Chelsea.
But it won’t be that easy for the Gunners to get the man from Atletico as Liverpool are also hot on heels for the goalkeeper. Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius have repeatedly produced uninspiring performances for Liverpool, which has led manager Jurgen Klopp to search for a new goalkeeper.
While Mignolet has paid the price for a series of error-strewn performances that has seen him become the club’s second choice, Karius, who is now the No.1 at Anfield, has looked fragile between the sticks in the last few outings. The wobbly goalkeeping situation has left Klopp frustrated and he has reportedly set his sights on acquiring Oblak from Atletico.
Oblak is one of Europe’s top goalkeepers and the Slovenian would be a great signing for us. We are badly in need of a new goalkeeper when compared to Arsenal, which would make Klopp do everything to sign the Atletico shot-stopper. However, Oblak won’t come cheap and Atletico would surely ask a lot of money for one of their star players. It remains to be seen whether or not Klopp would consider breaking the bank for a goalkeeper.
Given the current circumstances, I think our manager would splash really good money to snatch Oblak from the clutches of Arsenal.
