Arsenal have identified Croatian veteran Domagoj Vida as a potential cut-price addition to Mikel Arteta’s backline, according to Fanatik.
In an ideal world, a man who shone during his nation’s run to the 2018 World Cup final would be sticking around for at least another season at Besiktas. But, with one of Turkey’s biggest clubs in the midst of a financial crisis, the Istanbul-based giants have no choice but to make Vida available for transfer.
Reports from the continent suggest that Vida’s £50,000-a-week wages are a little beyond Besiktas’s budget these days. And, if an offer of around £9 million arrives, the former Dinamo Zagreb and Bayer Leverkusen stopper will be allowed to depart.
Vida is loving life at Besiktas but the opportunity to play Premier League football for the first time, at a giant of a club like Arsenal, would surely appeal. Especially given that, at 31, the experienced defender does not have unlimited years left at the top level.
Reports linking the Gunners with a 30-something from the Turkish Super Lig are unlikely to thrill one of Europe’s most demanding fanbases but Vida deserves the benefit of the doubt.
He was arguably the best defender on Russian soil at the World Cup two years ago. Furthermore, his big-game nous, leadership skills and uber-committed style should endear him to a club who, for far too long, have lacked all of those aforementioned attributes.
And the likes of William Saliba, Rob Holding and co would only benefit from sharing a dressing room with a player with attitude and ability in equal measure.
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