New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is looking to complete a triple Man City transfer swoop involving all of Raheem Sterling, Nathan Ake and Oleksandr Zinchenko with the latter of the trio potentially have a big impact on Arsenal and one full-back in particular.
Both London clubs are looking to add key defensive acquisitions to their backline in this summer's transfer window, Chelsea more so than Arsenal with numerous big players like Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen already gone and with more projected to follow suit. Consequently, a large part of the £200milllion transfer budget that Boehly has set aside for Thomas Tuchel's defensive rebuild will be spent on new recruits in the backline. Juventus' Matthijs de Ligt, Sevilla's Jules Kounde and Man City's Ake are prime candidates to make the switch to join the Boehly revolution.
In the full-back areas though, City's number 6 has the capacity to play full-back, it is understood that various wing-back options will be considered before a final decision is made on who could potentially replace the likes of Marcos Alonso and Emerson Palmieri if both were to seal their ideal moves this summer amid strong Barcelona and Lazio links. Jonathan Clauss is someone who would be available at a mere £10m which would seem appealing to the new board who need to spend funds smartly with other areas of the pitch subject to improvement amid strong Raheem Sterling transfer rumours.
READ MORE: Nathan Ake's true transfer value revealed as Chelsea aim to complete double £71m Man City swoop
Another option that has now appeared according to The Daily Mail is Man City full-back Zinchenko who has been told he can leave by Pep Guardiola, who himself has his eyes set on Brighton's Marc Cucurella. The Ukrainian's departure would free up the space in the squad for the arrival of the Seagulls' emerging star.
Manager Tuchel is reportedly a big admirer of City's number 11 who has also drawn interest this summer already from the likes of Arsenal, West Ham and a few other teams In the English top flight. An ambitious transfer swoop for all three aforementioned City targets would prove expensive but if the current World Champions were to pull this off, it could have significant implications on the Gunners and their plans.
Nuno Tavares is a full-back that struggled to adapt largely in his first full season of English football and as a result, is looking for a loan move elsewhere to further help with his development. In order for Edu to sanction this, he needs a replacement that can work as an understudy to Kieran Tierney next season.
William Saliba could potentially fill in at full-back on the odd occasions. but it isn't his natural and preferred position. Therefore, if the north Londoners were to miss out on Zinchenko to Chelsea, they need a contingency plan to ensure that the Portuguese can get his much-needed loan away amid Marseille rumours.
Luckily from the Gunners' perspective, the strong links to Lisandro Martinez and Aaron Hickey spell good news for Arsenal fans. Signing one or both of these options amid rumours that a new and improved £40m offer had been submitted Ajax's way for their Argentinean star would somewhat soften the blow of Zinchenko potentially moving elsewhere. Caught Offside have gone on record to say that he's actually in fact, set to stay which would make things interesting regarding where Boehly goes next and what happens to Cucurella.
Chelsea and Arsenal fans- Who needs Oleksandr Zinchenko more out of the two clubs? Leave your thoughts down below in the comments section!
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