Ligue 1 giants PSG are ready to spend anything on the capture of a marquee Arsenal star and are prepared to offer him huge wages, according to a new report.
Arsenal prepare for vital Newcastle clash
Arsenal need to win on Saturday and they know it.
Two consecutive Premier League defeats — first at home to Bournemouth, then at the Etihad against Man City — have turned what looked like a commanding title lead into a knife-edge race.
City, who beat Burnley 1-0 on Wednesday to level the points gap, now sit level with Arsenal on goal difference with the same number of games played, top only by goals scored.
Every match from here counts, and there is no room for further slip-ups.
Newcastle arrive at the Emirates on Saturday as the perfect opponent at the perfect time — on paper, at least.
Eddie Howe’s side have lost eight of their last 11 Premier League games and arrive in the worst form of any club in the division over that stretch.
Four consecutive defeats across all competitions have yielded 13 goals conceded, and Newcastle have not won at the Emirates since November 2010, having taken just one point from their last 13 Premier League visits to north London.
The Opta supercomputer gives Arsenal a 68.4 per cent chance of winning the game outright, but the Gunners aren’t exactly in the best of moments right now.
Three points here would put Arsenal back on top ahead of City’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton on Saturday, giving them control of their own destiny once more.
With Champions League semi-final legs against Atlético Madrid arriving, the next fortnight is as intense as the season gets.
Against that backdrop, Arsenal can ill-afford distractions, and news from the transfer front is adding another layer of noise.
PSG ready to push the boat out on signing Gabriel from Arsenal
According to SportsBoom, PSG have identified Gabriel Magalhães as a primary defensive target this summer and are ready to go to extraordinary lengths to sign him.
The French champions are prepared to make an unlimited financial commitment to land the Brazilian, with the report indicating they will offer him a wage package specifically designed to make refusal as difficult as possible.
SportsBoom state that PSG have set aside an ‘unlimited budget’ to sign Gabriel, alongside the tempting salary they’re prepared to offer.
Real Madrid have also been circling, and are understood to have made a discreet approach to Arsenal during the January transfer window. The response was an immediate and unequivocal rejection.
Arsenal’s position on Gabriel could not be clearer, and it isn’t the first time they’ve had to resist interest in him.
Mikel Arteta and the club’s hierarchy regard the 28-year-old as one of the three or four players around whom the entire project is built.
His partnership with William Saliba is widely considered the most effective central defensive axis in the Premier League, and his threat at set-pieces — combined with his ball-playing ability and leadership — gives him a value that goes beyond what any fee could capture.
Arsenal would apparently demand up to £95 million if they were ever forced to consider a sale, a figure that reflects just how highly Arteta’s staff rate him.
Crucially, Gabriel extended his contract to June 2029 last summer — a detail that gives Arsenal enormous bargaining power and removes any urgency to engage with outside interest.
PSG’s unlimited budget will need to be applied elsewhere, as the answer from Arsenal will be no.