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Arsenal transfer news: Bernd Leno having medical, five-year deal, announcement imminent
BERND LENO is undergoing a medical this afternoon ahead of sealing a £19.3million move to Arsenal.
Bernd Leno Arsenal signing should be Jack Butland says expert
The Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper has been on Arsenal’s radar this summer as new manager Unai Emery looks for a long-term replacement for 36-year-old Petr Cech.
Leno has been at Leverkusen since 2011 and missed out on a place in Germany’s World Cup squad.
But Arsenal are moving ahead in their attempts to sign Leno and Christian Falk, a reporter with German outlet SportBild says a deal is imminent.
Falk revealed on Twitter that Leno will sign a five-year contract with Arsenal and confirmed the goalkeeper was in London having a medical with an announcement expected soon.
Upon completion of the deal, Leno will become Emery’s second signing of the transfer window.
Swiss defender Stephan Lichtsteiner has joined from Juventus on a free transfer.
The deal for Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund is done and will be announced next month.
While a deal for Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira is also close but his involvement in the World Cup is holding up the move.
Former Arsenal player Paul Merson believes his old club need to focus their recruitment on their defence.
"Defensively they need everything," said Merson. "From a goalkeeper, as Petr Cech was great but isn't now, centre-halves and a holding midfielder.
“The full-backs aren't really good enough either so they've got a lot of work to do. Arsenal need to tighten up and become hard to beat which, based on what he did at Sevilla, Emery can do.
"Emery knows the Spanish market well so I think he'll be looking there, and to France, but I can't see them bringing in any English players.
"The good thing is that they've made an appointment early so Emery has time to improve the squad and if they can get [Mesut] Ozil, [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang and [Alexandre] Lacazette playing well then they're flying."