Transfer gossip: Arsenal chase another £60m+ Chelsea flop, as ‘unimpressed’ Mbappe plays field

Todd Boehly must have some incriminating photos of Mikel Arteta because Arsenal want to help Chelsea out with another flop. Kylian Mbappe is ‘unimpressed’.

LET HIM CUC

With questions still being asked of Kai Havertz, it seems like an inopportune time for Arsenal to take another curiously expensive flop off Chelsea’s FFP-tied hands. But after seeing the Gunners score from one of their last 71 shots, conceding seven goals from 46 attempts in that time, Mikel Arteta has decided that he quite obviously needs some more Marc Cucurella.

Chelsea journalist Simon Phillips has ‘heard some whispers…of a potential move to Arsenal bubbling up’ for the Spanish defender, but stressed that there was ‘nothing solid yet’ in those links.

On his Substack, Phillips added that Chelsea will target a new left-back in the summer, at which point Cucurella ‘will definitely be up for sale’. But they would entertain offers in January, albeit with the potential stumbling block of his current injury.

There is also the small matter of him not being very good across 18 months at Stamford Bridge, but Arteta doesn’t half love his unnecessary salvage projects.

READ MORE: Ranking Todd Boehly’s 17 Chelsea signings – Palmer storms to top spot as Sanchez drifts and Cucurella struggles

Gabriel and Marc Cucurella could be teammates soon

KYL SHOT

Arsenal sadly do not receive a specific mention in The Times’ update on Kylian Mbappe, despite the Paris Saint-Germain star inevitably being tempted to north London by the promise of trophies.

Only Liverpool – and Newcastle by proxy of a word for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – are namedropped of those Premier League ‘options’ that Mbappe is ‘exploring’.

The Frenchman is said to have been ‘unimpressed’ by Real Madrid trying to press him into signing a pre-contract agreement this month, despite some outlets reporting that the two parties had actually shook hands on a deal.

Mbappe has instead ‘told friends that Real will not decide his future for him,’ before ‘assessing the opportunities available in the Premier League’.

PSG ‘remain confident’ that Mbappe will not join Liverpool, with sources at the French club ‘relaxed’ about the situation.

THE JOSHUA TREE

One former player reckons Joshua Kimmich “fits perfectly” at Manchester United but Dimitar Berbatov knows better than anyone that until you safely navigate the airport without being whisked away, you could end up joining either top-flight club based in the city.

Manchester City hope to exact a small measure of Berbatov-based revenge by not only taking Kimmich from Bayern Munich, but doing it at around half price.

The Germany international has been priced at £50m this month but ‘that figure is expected to drop significantly’ to around £25m by the summer, with the Daily Star reporting on Manchester City’s ‘calculated gamble’ to bide their time.

Kimmich ‘would love to reignite’ his working relationship with Pep Guardiola, under whom he made his Bayern debut in the Spaniard’s final season, playing 36 times on his way towards 400 appearances for the German giants.