Arsenal on brink of completing Gabriel Magalhaes transfer after Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly ‘agrees to join Man City’
ARSENAL are on the brink of completing their swoop for Gabriel Magalhaes after Kalidou Koulibaly agreed to join Manchester City, according to reports.
The Gunners have been chasing the Lille centre-back, 22, all summer as they desperately look to plug a gaping hole in their leaky defence.
And Mikel Arteta has given a clear-run to sign Gabriel after Napoli - their only real rivals to sign the Brazilian - turned their attention to Mykola Matvienko.
The Serie A side will need to find a new defender quickly too, after it was rumoured Koulibaly had agreed to move to the Man City.
Koulibaly has been linked with a move to England for the last two years.
Manchester United were the early favourites to sign him, before Liverpool and City joined the race.
And Pep Guardiola looks to have got his man with the Spaniard having also signed Nathan Ake this summer to fix his own dodgy defence.
But Napoli won't be looking to replace Koulibaly with Gabriel, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Instead, the Serie A giants are looking at Shakhtar Donetsk ace Matvienko - himself a January transfer target for Arsenal.
Gabriel, meanwhile, is set to complete his £22million move to the Emirates in the coming days.
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The Brazilian is set to put pen to paper on a five-year contract.
However, he will likely not be ready for the start of the season, with those arriving on UK soil from France forced to self-isolate for 14 days.
Arsenal kick off their 2020-21 season with the Community Shield against Liverpool on August 29, before playing Fulham two weeks later in their Premier League opener.