Arsenal closing in on Premier League keeper
Arsenal are set to win the battle to land Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has moved into pole position to sign the highly-rated Belgium international in a £10million-plus deal this summer.
Wenger is set to start his summer of spending with a move for the 25-year-old from Wearside in a bid to finally end the long-standing goalkeeping issues at the Emirates.
It is thought that the Arsenal boss will be given up to £70million in the transfer window and the attraction of Champions League football for Mignolet will be an offer difficult to turn down as he sets his sights on establishing himself as his nation’s number one choice before the 2014 World Cup Finals.
Liverpool also watched Mignolet several times last season but their interest has cooled.
They are now understood to have turned their attentions to Stoke’s Asmir Begovic and Swansea’s Michel Vorm as summer targets.
A fee of around £10m for Mignolet, who was signed by Steve Bruce for just £2m three years ago, would be the biggest deal for a keeper between two Premier League clubs.
But the British goalkeeping record is the £17m that Manchester United paid Atletico Madrid for David De Gea.
Sunderland boss Paolo Di Canio is pulling out all the stops to keep Mignolet, who played a huge part in saving Sunderland from relegation.
Current Arsenal number one Wojiech Szczesny will have to battle it out for a first team place with Mignolet should the deal go ahead in the summer. It will be interesting to see whether Wenger automatically hands Mignolet the number one jersey or not.
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