£15m Newcastle and Arsenal target training alone after refusing new deal

Follow us on Google Discover

Alex Grimaldo will train on his own at Benfica with the Portuguese giants looking to sell a player on the radar of Premier League giants Newcastle United and Arsenal, as reported by Record. 

While Benfica can console themselves with a £64 million windfall after selling talismanic top-scorer Darwin Nunez to Liverpool – a handful of bank notes make quite the handkerchief it transpires – any hopes they might have had of bringing in a similarly eye-watering fee of Grimaldo went up in smoke some time ago.

The former Barcelona youngster, who appears to have been around forever despite only turning 26 last September, is entering the final 12 months of his Estadio da Luz contract.

And with Benfica desperate to cash in before his market value diminishes even further, Record believe that Grimaldo will be forced to train away from the rest of the first-team until he puts pen to paper with a new club. 

The swashbuckling Spaniard will be left out of Benfica’s pre-season plans too. That is the price he will have to pay after refusing to extend his contract at a club who reached the Champions League semi-finals last term. 

Is Alex Grimaldo following Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez to the Premier League?

According to A Bola, Benfica are demanding a fee in the region of around £15 million. Arsenal and Newcastle are potential destinations, and The Gunners would certainly welcome the prospect of bringing an attack-minded, technically-gifted left-back to the Emirates Stadium. 

Kieran Tierney’s injury issues, plus Nuno Tavares’ inconsistency, means a left-sided defender remains one of Mikel Arteta’s top summer targets. Finding one will be a challenge. Napoli beat Arsenal to Mattias Oliveira and Federico Dimarco appears keen to stay at Inter Milan. 

Newcastle, meanwhile, snapped up Matt Targett on a permanent basis earlier this month. The Magpies still want competition for the former Aston Villa loanee, however. And Grimaldo should come cheaper than the likes of Renan Lodi and Oleksandr Zinchenko. 

“For me, Grimaldo is one of the best five left-backs in Europe,” then-Benfica director Tiago Pinto said last year. “Many Benfica players are ready to, someday, play in a world class team. Grimaldo is good enough to play for any side right now.”