Report: Arsenal winning race to sign Juventus star, but Italians have upped asking price

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Italian outlet CalcioMercato have claimed that Arsenal are winning the race to sign Juventus defender Merih Demiral in the summer, despite the Italian champions increasing their asking price for the Turkish defender.

Demiral, 22, has endured a difficult season at Juventus since joining the club from Sassuolo in the summer. Caglar Soyuncu’s Turkey centre-back partner, Demiral has managed just seven appearances for Juventus this season.

Indeed, Giorgio Chiellini, Daniele Rugani, Matthijs de Ligt and Leonardo Bonucci are all ahead of Demiral in the pecking order. It saw Demiral fail to play much until December where he clocked up six outings in a row.

However, after scoring against Roma, he was stretchered off on 19 minutes with a long-term knee injury in January. He is expected to be sidelined until the summer, and Arsenal want to lure him to north London.

Leicester and Atletico Madrid made moves in January before his injury, while Arsenal have been repeatedly linked. Juve, though, want to extend his contract and have increased his previous £35million asking price.

TBR’s view – Demiral would be a stunning Arsenal signing

Juventus boast some of the best central defenders in the world and it is no slight on Demiral that the likes of de Ligt, Chiellini and Bonucci are ahead of him the pecking order. He would be Arsenal’s best defender.

However, Arsenal may have missed the boat. With Juve looking to tie him down to a new deal and having upped their asking price for the defender, The Gunners may be blocked in their bid to sign him.