English Premier League powerhouse Arsenal is reportedly close to complete a £30 million deal with La Liga club Valencia for the services of German center back Shkodran Mustafi.
The 24-year-old Germany international has been initially rumored as one of the two top targets by Gunners boss Arsene Wenger this summer with the other one being Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette.
Negotiations for the Lacazette transfer had been stalling at the moment and so recent speculations have emerged that Wenger is turning his attention to Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski or Atletico Madrid's Antoine Wenger as potential big-money alternatives.
However, the 66-year-old French mentor seems to be guaranteed to achieve one of his two wishes in the ongoing summer transfer window as the Mirror indicated that Valencia is ready to accept Arsenal's £30 million offer despite the £42 million buyout clause in Mustafi's contract.
Ali Bulut, Mustafi's agent, told reporters in a recent interview that personal terms were agreed between his client and the English top flight side and it is now up to the clubs to "thrash out an agreement on a fee with Arsenal hoping to complete the transfer over the weekend".
"Shkodran and Arsenal agree. There are only the terms to be agreed on a transfer fee," Bulut said.
Mustafi is reported to be Wenger's no. 1 target for his backfield lineup with incoming team captain Per Mertesacker set to miss the start of the season because of a knee injury.
West Brom had recently rejected Arsenal's bid for defender Jonny Evans and so supporters at the Emirates Stadium will surely welcome the latest development.
The Gunners are set to open the 2016-2017 Premier League season on Sunday at the Emirates against old rival Liverpool and the French boss is reportedly going to utilize "Nacho Monreal and Calum Chambers as a makeshift central defensive partnership" during the match.
Caught Offside noted that aside from Mertesacker, a couple of Arsenal central defenders are also not available on Sunday, namely center back starters Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel Paulista.
Mustafi had just finished his second season with Valencia last term. In two years, he had appeared in a total of 78 games for Los Che and had scored six times mainly as a defender.