According to The S*n, Arsenal could agree a £35m deal with SC Freiburg for Caglar Soyuncu. The 22-year-old’s agent Mustafa Dogru revealed to Turkish Football that talks over personal terms have gone well and all that needs to be agreed is the asking price.
“Sven Mislintat has been keen on Caglar since he was at Borussia Dortmund. He first scouted him back in Germany. Sven is interested in Caglar, there are concrete talks, all that remains is for a fee to be agreed. We will see what happens next,” he said.
Mislintat joined Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund in January and is the Head of Recruitment with the Gunners. He’s made it a summer priority to overhaul the defence, with Stephan Lichtsteiner signed from Juventus and Dortmund’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos set to follow in the coming weeks.
Soyuncu has been on Arsenal’s radar for some time, as the Turkish international could have a bright future. He’s made 55 appearances in all competitions for Freiburg since joining from Altinordu in 2016 and was a regular at the back last season – 30 appearances across the board.
Arsenal could go into next season very short at the back if they don’t bring in new faces. Per Mertesacker has retired and is now Head of Academy, while Laurent Koscielny is out with a serious ankle injury and may not return for a few months.
Currently, the Gunners are left with Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Calum Chambers as options at centre-back which isn’t good enough for a side that want a top-four finish in 2018/19.