Arsenal reach agreement in principle with Bologna for Calafiori

Arsenal have reached an agreement in principle with Bologna for the signing of Riccardo Calafiori.

However, Calafiori still has to take a medical before officially signing a long-term contract with the Gunners.

The deal for the defender, who can play at centre-back or left-back, is worth in the region of £42m (€50m).

Sky Sports News has been told another Premier League club, as well as Juventus and Real Madrid tried to sign the player in the last 10 days.

But Calafiori only wanted a move to Arsenal and gave his word he would join the Gunners. His representative Alessandro Lucci, from World Soccer Agency, has worked with both clubs over the past month to ensure a deal would get done.

he question is where Calafiori will fit in at Arsenal. It will prove difficult to dislodge Arsenal’s first-choice centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, who have featured together 79 times over the past two campaigns.

Arsenal also had the meanest defence in the Premier League last season, only conceding 29 goals. Yet while Ben White, Gabriel and Saliba were mainstays of the backline, the left-back berth is an area for summer surgery.

None of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Takehiro Tomiyasu claimed the role consistently last season, while Jurrien Timber, who started the previous campaign in that role, is only just back from a serious knee injury.

Source: Sky sport