Transfer news: £135 million superstar willing to take pay cut to join Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United to pull off stunning swap deal and more, 1 April 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified May 03, 2019 05:46 GMT

Lionel Messi will likely have a sensational strike partner from next season onwards

Arsenal to try to strengthen their defence with Umtiti and Alaba

Umtiti and Alaba top Arsenal's five-man transfer shortlist https://t.co/XwxxGVTrqV =
— Indy Football (@IndyFootball) March 28, 2019

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Unai Emery will reportedly ensure that Arsenal's defensive woes are addressed in the summer. Umtiti and Alaba have seen their situation at Barcelona and Bayern respectively, deteriorate a bit despite both of them being regular starters. In fact, the latter's contract renewal drama has consumed much time.

Bayern Munich are reportedly all set for a squad overhaul in the summer which will involve funds close to £300 million. They're also planning on shedding some of their regular players and it is in this scenario that Alaba's name is being mentioned.

Alaba had recently revealed his admiration for Arsenal and would be open to talks in the summer. However, Arsenal will face competition from Barcelona for the Austrian international.

Umtiti will greatly improve Arsenal's shaky defence and Emery will need to stump Barcelona with a stunning offer if the Gunners are to have any chance of signing the French World Cup winner.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad