Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker says that he wants the club to sign German international Sami Khedira either in January or in the summer.
The Real Madrid star is widely expected to leave the Spanish club after the end of this season. He is free to negotiate terms with foreign clubs from January, as his contract expires in the summer. A number of clubs have been queuing up to sign the player. The 27-year-old provides immense quality and experience, while the fact that he will not cost anything has made him even more attractive.
A number of clubs like Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Manchester United are looking to sign the player. Arsenal will have to fight off these competition in order to get Khedira, but they also have the advantage of having a few Germans the team. Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil, and Lukas Podolski are some of the German names currently playing for Arsenal. This could swing the advantage in favour of the gunners and Mertesacker has already begun talking about Khedira coming to Arsenal. He says that he is very much in favour of more quality German players coming to the club. The prospects of Khedira leaving Real Madrid in January have been blown away by the latest injury to Luka Modric.
The Croatian midfielder will miss up to 3 months of action and Khedira is likely to replace him.“I’m up for more quality Germans to [join] the club. Ozil and I spoke with Khedira a few times to join Arsenal. His contract is up next summer,” said Mertesacker. Wenger has suggested that he is unlikely to sign any high profile players in January even though the club has been going through a mini crisis in terms of players. Arsenal have a number of players like Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil on the sidelines.