Arsenal to splash out £33m in January to fill Coquelin hole

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Arsenal will reportedly make a £33m bid for Sevilla star Grzegorz Krychowiak in January as Arsene Wenger looks to bolster his midfield options for the Premier League title run-in.

According to The Sun, Wenger has been tracking the Poland international for over a year and is now ready to sanction a move in order to fill the void left by Francis Coquelin’s injury.

Coquelin started Arsenal’s opening 12 league games of the season before suffering knee ligament damage in November which ruled him out for three months, as the Daily Mail reports.

The lack of cover available to Wenger his yet to hurt the Gunners, with veteran Mathieu Flamini having filled in admirably to help them to four wins in a row in all competitions.

But Wenger knows that the area needs strengthening and has made signing a holding midfielder his number-one priority when the transfer window reopens, The Sun adds.

A swoop for Krychowiak, who cost Sevilla only £3.3m from Reims in 2014, was considered last summer but Wenger baulked at Sevilla’s £22m asking price, according to The Sun.

The 25-year-old would now cost £11m more because of a release clause included in a new contract that he signed with the Spanish outfit last month to ward off interest from top clubs.

But Arsenal have the funds available to trigger the clause, and feel that the deal makes financial sense because Flamini, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky are expected to leave when their contracts expire at the end of the season, freeing up £200,000 worth of wages, according to The Sun.

Injuries to Rosicky, Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla have added to Wenger’s midfield woes, increasing the likelihood that Krychowiak could become a Gunner next month.

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