Arsenal will need to pay £40 million to sign Daniele Rugani from Juventus, according to The Evening Standard, but they should walk away from a deal now.
The Italy international appears to be a genuine target for Unai Emery, who is keen to add further strength to his back-line.
However, while negotiations are ongoing with Juventus over a possible deal for Rugani, no breakthrough has been reached yet, and the Serie A champions are demanding an extortionate sum.
Read Arsenal’s verdict
This wouldn’t be a good deal, at all, for Arsenal. There are far better defenders in Serie A alone that could be snapped up for £40 million or less, never mind in world football.
Rugani is by no means a bad player, but he has never nailed down a place in the Juventus starting line-up, and it is easy to see why. He has failed to develop consistency in Turin and has not lived up to his early potential.
It is no coincidence that the Italian giants orchestrated the acquisitions of two new centre-backs this summer. Merih Demiral and Matthijs de Ligt both arrived, with Rugani not trusted to succeed the likes of Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini in central defence, despite the pair entering the twilight of their respective careers.
Rugani is hardly the man to solve Arsenal’s defensive woes; he is an intelligent player, but has struggled to cope with physical forwards over the years and fails to recover from initial mistakes. At £40 million, the Gunners would be getting a bad deal.
