Arsenal look set to sign a Spanish wonderkid who could be the last piece of Mikel Arteta’s jigsaw.
That’s according to reports that claim that the Gunners boss has very nearly tied up all of the summer business that he set out to do, after landing the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner and Marquinhos.
The Emirates Stadium welcomes Leicester City for the first home fixture of the season and with the major doubt Emile Smith Rowe having trained this week, it looks like Arteta will have a full squad of players to choose from. That hasn’t stopped the club from launching a £33 million bid for a highly-rated young Spaniard, however.
Spanish publication AS(opens in new tab) says that Arsenal have tabled a bid for Villarreal star Yeremy Pino – and that the Yellow Submarine are expected to accept the offer.
The 2021 Europa League champions may have reached the final four of the Champions League last time around but they won’t be in Europe at all this term, having finished eighth last time around. Although there isn’t a desperate need to raise capital, stars are expected to be wanted by big European sides as a result.
This leaves former Gunners manager Unai Emery – now at the helm at the Estadio de la Ceramica with the power to help out his former club and fellow Basque boss Arteta by offloading precocious teenager Pino to the Premier League.
The 19-year-old last season became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the first half of a La Liga match, in a rout of Espanyol, following in the footsteps of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann as stars to have netted four in a game in the Spanish top flight.
Arsenal have plenty of irons in the fire, however, according to reports. PSV star Cody Gakpo is on the radar according to football.london(opens in new tab), Wolves winger Pedro Neto is a target according to the Evening Standard(opens in new tab) and Porto star Pepe has been linked by Portuguese outlet, A Bola(opens in new tab).