Fabrizio Romano has revealed on the Que Golazo YouTube channel how much Arsenal will have to pay for Lisandro Martinez.
It appears that Mikel Arteta is looking to improve his back four from last season, which saw several of their key players such as Kieran Tierney and Ben White pick up injuries throughout the campaign.
The Gunners have already been linked with a move for youngster Aaron Hickey this summer to improve their depth in the full-back positions, but most recently they’ve been linked with a move for Ajax defender Martinez.
However, Romano has claimed that the defender will not be sold on the cheap this summer.
He said: “It’s true that Arsenal are absolutely interested, they approached Ajax with a potential proposal of £30m, but for Ajax it’s not enough, absolutely. They want maybe £45-50m for Lisandro, and so it’s still early stages.
“It’s also true that Erik ten Hag mentioned his name internally at Manchester United, so it’s an open race for Lisandro, but as I mentioned for Antony, I don’t expect Ajax to sell so many players – they already lost Mazraoui, Gravenberch, Haller soon, so many players are leaving the club.
“And so my expectation is they will ask for an important fee, as I mentioned, and it’s not going to be an easy negotiation, but for sure, Lisandro is top of the list at centre-back at Arsenal.”
Our thoughts
One thing that could be alarming for Arsenal fans in terms of Arteta wanting Martinez is that he is considerably under 6ft tall, which is relatively small for a centre-back, especially in the Premier League, so he may have to be part of a back three to thrive.
Also, the fact that Arsenal offered potentially £20m less than what Ajax are looking to receive would suggest that the Gunners are looking to strike up a deal on the cheap, which makes sense if they also want to splash big money on the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Raphinha.
