\n<\/p>\n
Arsenal, irrespective of whether they win the biggest silverware on offer this season, are keen to strengthen their ranks in the summer \u2013 but reports have suggest their pursuit of a Champions League winner could have hit a snag.<\/p>\n
The Gunners, whose four-pronged pursuit of trophies continue after they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 in the second leg of their Round of 16 Champions League tie, have all manner of targets on their radar.<\/p>\n
That includes Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid and RB Leipzig defender Castello Lukeba \u2013 but both targets will cost the club a pretty penny.<\/p>\n
Read More: <\/strong>\u2018The feeling is\u2026\u2019 \u2013 Fabrizio Romano drops update on Julian Alvarez amid Arsenal interest<\/p>\n As a result, Arteta and his entourage are also advancing in the free agency market as a means of keeping the costs down. That is especially the case given a first-teamer needs to be sold because of their hefty spend last summer.<\/p>\n Alongside some of the most exciting forwards in world football, Arsenal are also looking to add some experience to their engine room.<\/p>\n Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi are the two-man partnership for Arteta in the middle of the park but the north London outfit are hoping to add more faces.<\/p>\n Their pursuit of Sandro Tonali has taken a hit in the previous days with the Italian open to an Old Trafford switch and Arsenal could therefore return their focus to signing Leon Goretzka, who plays for Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n According to The<\/em> Gazzetta dello Sport<\/em>though, Juventus are also in the race for Goretzka \u2013 a midfielder who will be a free agent in the summer.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time the Old Lady have been interested in the midfielder, who won the Champions League in 2019\/20 with the German side.<\/p>\n The aforementioned report has suggested that he is now at the summit of Juventus\u2019 summer shortlist and they are hoping that third time\u2019s a charm. The Bianconeri are looking to fend off the competition.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Arsenal were considered the \u2018frontrunners\u2019 for the Germany international\u2019s signature and he reportedly would \u2018love to play\u2019 at the Emirates Stadium but Juventus\u2019 interest could prevent the Gunners from getting a deal for the free agent over the line.<\/p>\n On the face of it, Arsenal is the much better prospect for a player nowadays: they are top of the Premier League at the time of writing and are flying high in the Champions League.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Juventus are fifth in Serie A and were dumped out of Europe by Galatasaray. <\/p>\n The thing which could convince Leon Goretzka to move to Italy rather than England is the opportunity to play. That\u2019s because Juventus\u2019 midfield ranks are much weaker than that of Arsenal\u2019s.<\/p>\n Wherever the 31-year-old ends up at the end of the season remains to be seen but he\u2019ll certainly add a layer of expertise to the midfield.<\/p>\n From the above, it\u2019s clear that Goretzka would add some passing know-how to the Premier League table-toppers, though he doesn\u2019t fare well in the defensive department. Regardless, he\u2019d be a great addition for free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arsenal, irrespective of whether they win the biggest silverware on offer this season, are keen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Juventus rival<\/strong> Arsenal for free agent transfer this summer<\/h2>\n
Why Juventus\u2019 late entry could ruin Arsenal\u2019s midfield plans<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\n Statistic<\/td>\n Leon Goretzka<\/td>\n Declan Rice<\/td>\n Martin Zubimendi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Minutes<\/td>\n 1326<\/td>\n 2585<\/td>\n 2606<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Goals\/Assists<\/td>\n 2\/1<\/td>\n 4\/5<\/strong><\/td>\n 5\/1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Pass success rate (%)<\/td>\n 93.2<\/strong><\/td>\n 87.8<\/td>\n 88.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tackles per match<\/td>\n 0.9<\/td>\n 1.9<\/strong><\/td>\n 1.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Interceptions per match<\/td>\n 0.9<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n 1.1<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Dribbles per match<\/td>\n 0.4<\/td>\n 0.4<\/td>\n 0.5<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Overall rating<\/td>\n 6.84<\/td>\n 7.32<\/strong><\/td>\n 6.96<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>