Emirates Stadium side look to land international duo.
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Arsenal are plotting a summer move to bring in Schalke duo Julian Draxler and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, two long term Arsene Wenger targets, as the North London club seeks to strengthen their squad when the transfer window re-opens.
CaughtOffside understands that Wenger will make a fresh offer for 20 year old Draxler having seen a January bid turned down by the Bundesliga outfit.
Draxler is said to be ready to leave Schalke this summer and the Gelsenkirchen side are ready to sell the young midfielder to Arsenal in preference to seeing their prized asset join either Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, who are both said to be tracking the German international.
Wenger has sent scouts to assess Draxler in recent weeks as the playmaker returned to the Schalke first team after two months out and saw the youngster provide two assists in the club’s 4-0 win over Hoffenheim yesterday.
Arsenal are ready to offer up to £36m for Draxler, a sizable bid that the Premier League side hope will tempt Schalke into selling.
Wenger is also set to offer £12m for 30 year old Dutch striker Huntelaar, who he will look to act as a much needed attacking reinforcement to boost his Arsenal strike-force.
The former Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan man was strongly linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium 18 months ago and has fought hard to return to somewhere near his best following lengthy knee injury setbacks.
Huntelaar is now into his fourth season at Schalke and has scored an impressive 86 goals in 129 appearances but could now be tempted by a fresh challenge in the English top tier, having previously stated his desire to play in the Premier League.
Arsene Wenger is willing to scrap Arsenal’s contract policy on players over the age of 30 and is ready to hand Huntelaar a three year deal.
The Arsenal boss will be given a sizable transfer war-chest this summer and may well look to make room for striking additions by selling the likes of Nicklas Bendtner, Park-Chu Young and Lukas Podolski as well as a number of other under-performing squad players to help balance the books.
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