Arsenal have confirmed the signing of Lille and Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhaes.
The Gunners took to their official Twitter account to break the news to their fans. In the tweet, they confirmed that Gabriel has signed a ‘long term contract’ at the Emirates stadium.
🗞 Central defender Gabriel has joined us from French side Lille on a long-term contract!
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 1, 2020
Technical director Edu told the clubs official website: “We are delighted to have signed Gabriel. He is a player we have been studying for a while and he was in demand from many clubs, so we are proud to have agreed and completed this transfer with Lille and the player. Gabriel is a player of high quality and Mikel and his coaches are looking forward to integrating him into the club.”
Interestingly, Arsenal did manage to see off competition from fellow Premier League sides Manchester United and Everton to sign the defender for £27 million.
The Brazilian becomes the Gunners second summer signing alongside fellow compatriot Willian.
Importantly, he becomes the third defender that Mikel Arteta has signed since becoming manager, joining Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares.
To make three defensive signings in his first two windows shows that Arteta had no faith in his current unit. There is the possibility that Gabriel Magalhaes will partner William Saliba next season. His potential partner spent last season on loan at St Etienne after signing for the Gunners last summer.
Now that Arsenal appear to be making signings that will improve their squad significantly, could now they now challenge for the top four again?
