Arsenal in talks to sign Croatian World Cup star Vida

Bengaluru, August 5: Arsenal boss Unai Emery is plotting a £25million move for Croatian World Cup wonder Domagoj Vida. But the deal will only happen if the Gunners can flog Shkodran Mustafi or Danny Welbeck in the next few days.

Emery is not impressed with the defence he has inherited from Arsene Wenger at the Emirates despite adding new faces to his side. And, reports claim that Emery has identified Vida as the man to bring some steel to his leaky back four.

Arsenal already have as many as six central defenders on their books, including injured skipper Laurent Koscielny and £16million signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos. But he is not convinced by Mustafi, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding and does not believe rookie Konstantinos Mavropanos is ready for regular Premier League football.

The 29-year-old starred for Croatia as they shone at the World Cup before losing 4-2 to France in the final and is keen to test himself in England.

He only joined Besiktas from Dynamo Kiev for £8million in January and the Turkish club have rejected a £13.5m bid by Liverpool this summer.

But Besiktas chairman Fikret Orman is ready to sell at the right price and is expecting an offer from Premier League newcomers Wolves.

Arsenal’s problem is that they have no more money available for new signings after spending a huge £70m this summer.

After spending a club-record £60million fee for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January, they are now in a tight financial situation.

So Emirates chiefs are now desperately scratching around to find buyers for some of the squad players who do not feature in Emery’s long-term plans.

But so far they have only managed to raise pocket change from the sales of fringe men Chuba Akpom and Jeff Reine-Adelaide.

And they now have just five days to offload the likes of Mustafi, Welbeck, Lucas Perez and David Ospina to stand any chance of landing Vida before Thursday’s transfer deadline.