Arsenal are not currently in talks over a potential transfer move for Barcelona left-back Alejandro Balde, according to Fabrizio Romano in his exclusive Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside.
The talented 19-year-old looks a big prospect for the future, so it’s not too surprising to hear that there’s some transfer gossip involving the player.
Still, it seems there’s not much to the Arsenal rumours, with Romano responding to the claim from Sport that the Gunners had made an approach to sign Balde as he’s yet to sign a new contract with Barcelona.
The reporter has explained that Balde is very close to signing a new contract with Barca, who will bump up his release clause to a staggering £500million in the process.
It certainly doesn’t look like Arsenal are going to find it easy to bring Balde to the Emirates Stadium even if they try, so this seems like a story that isn’t worth paying too much attention to for the moment.
“Barcelona are really close to agree new deal with Balde, it will happen soon,” Romano said. “It’s about final details and it could include €500M release clause.
“My understanding is that Arsenal are not in talks to sign him as of now.”
Arsenal already have Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney as options at left-back, so there doesn’t seem to be much need to try bringing in Balde as well, even if the Spain international looks a top young talent with a bright future in the game.