Shkodran Mustafi has taken to Twitter amid reports that Arsenal are set to finally submit a formal £30m bid for his services.
Arsene Wenger has been forced to step-up his pursuit of a new centre-back after Gabriel was ruled out for up to eight week with an ankle injury that he picked up during the win over Manchester City on Sunday.
With Per Mertesacker also on the sidelines through injury and Laurent Koscielny only returning to training yesterday following his extended break, we have no senior centre-back to choose from against Liverpool on Sunday.
Therefore, the boss is hoping to bring in a new defender before the end of the week and the Daily Mail claim that we’re set to test Valencia’s resolve with an opening £30m bid for Mustafi.
That amount is still below the 24-year-old’s £42m buyout clause but it’s actually above the £25m figure that many other news outlets have previously suggested that Valencia would accept.
I’ve also read reports claiming that Mustafi has been training away from the rest of the first team squad and won’t feature in Valencia’s next friendly on Wednesday night.
However, the German international appears to be in good spirits as he’s now broken his silence after taking to Twitter earlier this afternoon to post a message saying he’d completed his first training session of the day and was enjoying a break before he returns for his second session.
You’d hope that Wenger will table our offer as soon as possible and we’d really need to get a deal agreed on Wednesday to stand a chance of getting Mustafi registered in time to face Liverpool.
I’m not entirely sure what the delay is. Perhaps we’re waiting for Valencia to sign a replacement but we are in desperate need of a new centre-back so we should be doing all we can to get the deal agreed now. We have the money, so there is no excuse if we don’t get a player in before Friday.
1st training session today 
2nd one is yet to come 
Luckily there's time for a break in between... 
