Arsenal yet to finalize deal for Borussia Dortmund ace

Though the deal is expected to go through in the coming weeks

Arsenal endured an underwhelming season as they failed to win any silverware in Arsene Wenger’s final campaign. They finished 6th in the Premier League, reached the Carabao Cup final and the Europa League semi-final.

Unai Emery has been appointed as the new manager of the Gunners and is expected to be very busy in the summer transfer window in order to strengthen the squad for next season.

The Spaniard has already completed the signings of Stephan Lichtsteiner and Bernd Leno. The club is also close to signing Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira.

He has prioritized signing central defenders this summer and is desperate to bolster his defensive line up for the next season. Laurent Koscielny is out for more 5 months, Per Mertesacker has retired at the end of the season and Shkodran Mustafi has had a difficult campaign last season.

There were reports in May that the the English side are close to agreeing a deal for Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos, as he emerged a top transfer target for the former PSG boss.

Club’s new head of recruitment, Sven Mislintat, has worked with the centre-back before in Germany and believes he would be a useful addition at Emirates Stadium. He played an influential part in January signings of Mavropanos, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan.

The 30 year old joined the Bundesliga giants from Werder Bremen in 2013 and has made more than 200 appearances for them. He enjoyed another solid season with the club last season, managing to make 43 appearances in all competitions.

But Arsenal are yet to finalize a deal for the Greece International but the German club’s sporting director Michael Zorc is expecting a transfer to go through.

Zorc told Revier Sport: “It looks like he will go there, that’s right. But things are not completely finalised yet.

“And I will not work with you now and talk about the rumour mill, which includes 27 new BVB players since the end of May.

“In the meantime, we are having fun ourselves and planning. We have clear ideas and I am very sure that we will put together a very good team.

“This will not necessarily be the case until the start of the season, because the coach wants to make an impression on the players who are under contract with us.”