North Londoners are keen to replace Szczesny between the sticks next campaign.
Arsenal’s hopes of bringing highly-rated young Sporting Lisbon keeper Rui Patricio to the Emirates next season have hit a major stumbling block, according to reports in the Daily Express.
Gunners head coach Arsene Wenger is at present on the look-out for a new shot stopper after finally losing patience with current No 1 Wojciech Szczesny, with the Frenchman even dropping the Poland international earlier this year due to “mental fatigue”.
However, the north London club’s hopes of landing Sporting’s Portugal international have hit a snag after the Lisbon giants turned down the Gunners’ opening bid of £10 million for their goalkeeper.
Patricio, who has been capped 22 times by his country since making his debut three years ago, has a contract at the Estádio José Alvalade until the end of June 2018, and so as a result Sporting value the player at nearer the £13m mark.
But, it is believed that Arsenal do not share the same opinion about Patricio’s market value and so may now look elsewhere for a new keeper instead, with the likes of Barcelona’s Victor Valdes, Hamburg’s Rene Adler and Stoke’s Asmir Begovic all understood to be under consideration.
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