Arsenal has gone out and scouted Shakhtar Donetsk’s Mykola Matviyenko as their next defensive target.
Sky Sports claims the 23-year-old is valued at around £30m by his parent club and was a former target of Manchester City.
It is clear how Mikel Arteta came to know about the defender, having previously worked under Pep Guardiola. The Cityzens were impressed by Matviyenko after a Champions League group stage clash with Shakhtar.
Arsenal clearly need reinforcements in defence with both David Luiz and Sokratis coming up short in expectations this season. Also, both the defenders are north of 30 and are not in the club’s long-term plans. William Saliba is set to return next season and Calum Chambers has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
Arteta wants to bring in players who are technically astute even if they are defenders. That is why Luiz has turned into such an important element in this new Gunners side. Matviyenko is not the biggest player at 5 feet 11 inches but he makes up for it in athleticism and his abilities on the ball.
His agent, Yuriy Danchenko revealed to the Ukranian press, “Recently, my colleagues and I have been constantly in contact with representatives of the Arsenal, and have had meetings. The Gunners’ hierarchy have already contacted [Shakhtar], and we hope that these negotiations will succeed.”
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