Arsenal table bid in excess of £17 million to rival West Ham and European clubs for star defender

Arsenal have officially entered the race for Dinamo Zagreb’s star defender Josip Sutalo this summer. The Croatia international is a long-standing player of interest for the Gunners, who have been monitoring him since last year. However, Sutalo has attracted a lot of attention since the transfer window opened and Arsenal are most certainly not alone in their pursuit.

According to TuttoMercatoWeb, a fleet of clubs are in the running to sign Sutalo and four of them, including Mikel Arteta’s side, have placed bids ‘which have already passed the threshold of €20 million (£17m) as a basis.’ The others who have tabled an offer are Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, and another Premier League side which could be West Ham.

The report claims the Irons are interested in Sutalo but it doesn’t mention whether they have approached Dinamo with a bid yet. Ajax are also in a similar situation — they are keen on the 23-year-old but have not yet launched an official offer. Sutalo still has five years left on his current contract and naturally, the club are in no rush to sell him so it could be a case of playing a waiting game.

The interest doesn’t stop there either. Italian outfits Fiorentina and Napoli are also on the scene but TMW report that Dinamo have decided their bids for Sutalo are too low. So right now, Arsenal in a good position but will need to outperform three other clubs if they want to get a deal over the time.

As it stands, the Gunners already have five senior centre-backs on their roster following the signing of Jurrien Timber from Ajax. However, Rob Holding has been listed among the players Arteta is looking to offload in order to balance the books after they splashed out on their marquee trio.