Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac transfer taking massively poor turn

Arsenal were supposedly all set to wrap up the Bosnian defender Sead Kolasinac, but all of a sudden it isn’t as easy as it once seemed.

With a hectic summer impending on Arsenal, the heavy belief that Sead Kolasinac was already a done deal was such a welcome sign. Here was a huge need that the Gunners needed to address, especially given the new 3-4-3 formation, and they had acquired a really solid talent with a bright future and, best of all, he was free.

So all that money we would have had to spend on the position could be rerouted into other, equally important needs.

Now, however, what seemed like a done deal has met a massive wrench. The Sun is reporting that Manchester City have meddled their greasy fingers into the entire saga, expressing their interest, as well as preparing to go toe to toe with the Gunners in the race for the Bosnian.

According to the report, both clubs are ready to offer the man a contract worth £120,000 a week, a pretty stiff sum, all things considered, and a sum that could be construed as another bad sign for the Arsenal.

Are they really going to pay him that much, even if the transfer fee is taken care of? It’s a dicey preposition.

These are two unneeded twists in the tale. Manchester City may have a couple upper hands on their North London counterpart, while Arsenal has just one.

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For starters, Pep Guardiola is a convincing manager when he wants to be. Plus, he figures to have a loner tenure at City than Arsene Wenger will have at the Emirates. That aspect of continuity could be huge for a young player like Kolasinac who is eager to grow.

Secondly, Manchester City will have Champions League football, in all likelihood, barring something crazy, and that, as we have seen, is a huge bargaining chip as well.

The one upper hand that the Gunners have is that Kolasinac has really gotten into his flow as a wing back and Wenger has shown that he is willing to utilize such a position, whereas Guardiola never has.

But overall, City has a more convincing case if this comes down to a matter of perks.

If nothing else, the North Londoners should be able to guarantee more playing time, although even then it isn’t set. City isn’t golden at left back. But they do have more set options than Wenger does.

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The reports sound like Kolasinac is still leaning towards the Gunners, but until this deal is done, it’s going to get pretty nervy.

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