Arsenal have entered discussions with Bayer Leverkusen about a potential deal to bring England defender Jarell Quansah to the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta is understood to be eager to bolster his defensive ranks and regards Quansah as an ideal signing given his ability to operate comfortably at both centre-back and right-back.
Quansah has only just returned to Leverkusen following a lengthy break after his first World Cup, where he won three caps for England.
He made 44 appearances during his debut campaign in Germany after opting to leave boyhood club Liverpool last summer.
Leverkusen are said to be reluctant to part with the 23-year-old, having been struck by both his form in the Bundesliga and the maturity he showed while settling into life at a new club.
Arsenal are likely to have to offer significantly more than the £30m Leverkusen paid to sign him last July if they want to tempt the German club into a sale, with Quansah still having four years left to run on his contract.
How the original Liverpool deal unfolded
Quansah's switch to the Bundesliga was actually completed for a fee, with reporting varying slightly on the exact structure. According to Sky Sports, the agreement was built around an initial £30m payment plus a further £5m in easily achievable add-ons, and Liverpool also secured a buy-back clause as part of the arrangement.
The Athletic reported the fee slightly differently, pricing the deal at just over €40m (£34m) and noting it would have represented a record transfer for Leverkusen, surpassing the €32m they paid for Kerem Demirbay back in 2019, according to The Athletic.
Sky Sports separately reported that Liverpool had initially been holding out for £40m during negotiations, while ESPN noted that Quansah had actually put pen to paper on a new five-year contract at Anfield back in October, before the move to Leverkusen gathered pace, according to ESPN.
The transfer formed part of a much broader summer of business between the two clubs, with Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz also moving in the opposite direction during the same window, according to the BBC. Reports at the time suggested Leverkusen had come to view Quansah as effectively unsellable after his first season in Germany, a reflection of just how highly he was rated at the BayArena.
Liverpool's buy-back option in the deal was later reported to sit at around £51m, underlining the value now attached to any potential return to Anfield, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Analysis: why Quansah makes sense for Arsenal
With William Saliba sidelined through injury, Arsenal are short of options at centre-back. But that is far from the only defensive headache Arteta is dealing with, with right-back proving just as problematic. Our earlier coverage detailed how Arsenal were already lining up a new central defender after Saliba's back injury, even as they pushed forward with moves for Bruno Guimaraes and explored a deal for Vinicius Junior.
Jurrien Timber is still working his way back from the groin problem that has largely kept him out since March, and Ben White's injury history offers little reassurance either. It's worth recalling that Cristhian Mosquera was forced into an unfamiliar right-back role for Arsenal's Champions League final defeat, and ended up conceding a penalty in Budapest as a result.
That defensive shortfall is precisely why Arsenal have also been tracking Ezri Konsa, though Aston Villa's valuation of their 28-year-old has proven prohibitive. Our earlier reporting revealed that Aston Villa's own players fear Konsa could depart as Arsenal step up their interest, with the pursuit intensifying after setbacks elsewhere in the transfer market. At 23, Quansah's England team-mate could conceivably solve both problem positions at once, and may ultimately represent better long-term value.
A natural centre-back, the former Liverpool man spent last season operating on the right side of a back three for Leverkusen. That versatility was enough to persuade Thomas Tuchel to select Quansah among his right-back options for England this summer, notably ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
His pass map for Leverkusen shows Quansah frequently pushing into what is traditionally considered right-back territory for the Bundesliga side. That suggests once Saliba is back to full fitness alongside Gabriel at the heart of defence, Quansah would still have a clear route into the side in a different role.
Arsenal's full-back role, though, differs markedly from a conventional one. Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are frequently asked to invert into central areas, at times operating almost as hybrid centre-forwards. Yet Arteta has shown with another former Leverkusen player, Piero Hincapie, that more traditionally defensive full-backs can still be accommodated within his system.
What happens next
Reports at the time of the original move suggested Quansah was set to finalise his transfer once he had completed a medical, with England Under-21 commitments cited as the last hurdle before the deal went through, according to Yahoo Sports. Liverpool were also said to have a deadline of the end of May to trigger their buy-back clause, after which Leverkusen would be entitled to demand a higher fee for any potential return, according to the Express.
