Arsenal show ‘significant’ interest in £69.4m Premier League defender amid William Saliba transfer uncertainty

Arsenal have supposedly joined Barcelona within the race to signal a Nottingham Forest centre-back, whom Chelsea have additionally expressed an curiosity in.

The Gunners misplaced their excellent defensive document for the 2025-26 Premier League season in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, the place a sensational Dominik Szoboszlai free kick propelled the champions to all three factors.

However, Arsenal are but to concede from open play within the top-flight marketing campaign, the place the partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes have remained as strong as ever.

Saliba was withdrawn inside the primary 5 minutes of the defeat to the Reds owing to an ankle damage, however summer season signing Cristhian Mosquera slotted in seamlessly alongside Gabriel and was not too long ago name-checked by a Gunners legend in a Premier League title query.

Mikel Arteta has additionally added Bayer Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapie to his ranks on a mortgage deal – which is able to virtually definitely be made everlasting subsequent summer season – however there are just a few issues round Saliba’s state of affairs.

Arsenal present ‘equally vital’ curiosity in Forest’s Murillo

The Frenchman is now within the closing two years of his Gunners contract and is supposedly being courted by Actual Madrid, who’re hopeful of signing him on a budget subsequent yr or on a free switch in 2027.

In preparation for Saliba’s doable exit, CaughtOffside claims that Arsenal have taken an curiosity in Nottingham Forest defender Murillo, who turned a direct fan favorite upon his arrival on the Metropolis Floor from Corinthians in 2023.

Forging a formidable central partnership with Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo scored two targets in 36 Premier League appearances final season, enjoying a elementary position within the Difficult Timber’ Europa League qualification.

The Gunners and Barcelona are mentioned to be the 2 ‘main admirers’ of the Brazilian, whereas Arteta is especially attracted to 2 of his traits; his ‘presence of thoughts’ and line-breaking passes, the latter of which Arsenal have considerably misplaced with Oleksandr Zinchenko’s mortgage transfer to none apart from Forest.

In the meantime, Barcelona apparently imagine that Murillo can be the right successor to Inigo Martinez, who left the La Liga champions to Saudi Professional League aspect Al-Nassr this summer season.

How a lot would Arsenal, Barcelona need to pay for Murillo?

Forest are in an extremely sturdy negotiating place in the case of Murillo, who solely prolonged his contract again in January and isn’t as a result of develop into a free agent till 2029.

The Difficult Timber paid £10.4m to carry the 23-year-old to the membership two years in the past, however they might supposedly now be after between €70m (£60.7m) and €80m (£69.4m) to let him depart within the coming months.

Chelsea are thought to have failed with one formal bid for the South American earlier this yr, however the Blues have been tipped to return in when the January market opens following Levi Colwill’s severe ACL damage.

Regardless of his sturdy type for Forest over the previous yr, Murillo was overlooked of the Brazil squad for September’s World Cup qualifying matches towards Chile and Bolivia.

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