Arsenal have agreed on a deal to sign Lille centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes and he will be putting pen on paper to a five-year deal with the Premier League side.
The 22-year-old has been one of the finer talents in the Ligue 1 this past season, featuring in 34 games across all competitions for the French side.
Arsenal already have a plethora of central defenders at their disposal so many pundits are still trying to figure out as to where the youngster will fit in. But according to Arsenal legend Nigel Winterburn, Mikel Arteta knows exactly what he’s going to get from Gabriel Magalhaes.
He said, as reported: “When someone gets linked with Arsenal I tend to do a bit of research on them and have a look at what they’re about.
“For me, it’s all about the type of personnel you’re getting as much as the ability.
“But he’s highly regarded, a left-sided centre-half who is supposed to be very powerful.
“Arsenal have got problems at centre-half and they can’t seem to get a consistent pairing together with the players they already have in that position, so it’s quite obvious that that’s a position Arteta feels he must strengthen.”
Nicolas Pepe also arrived from Ligue 1 with many high hopes but the winger has failed to cope up with life in England. Pepe is clearly not the first choice right-winger for Mikel Arteta right now and there have also been rumours about the club planning to offload him pretty soon.
We hope Gabriel Magalhaes does not turn out to be the same sort of player but in case he does then the Arsenal boss will be in a heap of trouble.
But according to his Lille teammate Jose Fonte, the 22-year-old will be successful in the Premier League.
“I’m happy for him, I’m very, very happy for him. He’s a great player,” Fonte told talkSPORT.
“Everybody’s dream is to play in the Premier League and he’s been asking me questions about the Premier League and asking questions about clubs in the Premier League, so I tried to give him the best and honest opinion.
“Hopefully he’ll make his decision and he’ll be very successful, I have no doubt about it.”
