Tierney deal on but Arsenal set to miss out on Rugani as transfer talks stall over centre-back

ARSENAL are frantically working to get another centre-half in before tomorrow’s transfer deadline after pulling the plug on a move for Juventus’s Daniele Rugani.

The club are still in negotiations with Celtic over a £25million deal for Scottish international full-back Kieran Tierney.

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But signing another centre-back to replace Laurent Koscielny is now Unai Emery’s top priority.

They are still exploring the possibility of negotiating a loan deal for Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti even though the French international is currently on the club’s pre-season tour of the USA.

But they are also looking at other defensive options ahead of tomorrow’s 5pm deadline.

They did look at the idea of a two-year loan deal for Rugani - who dates stunning sports journalist Michela Persico - with a guaranteed permanent signing fee of £37million in 2021.

But they could not agree payment terms with Juventus and have now accepted that deal is not going to happen.

CENTRE-HALF PRIORITY

They have also walked away from a potential move for RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upemacano after being quoted a £55million fee.

And the urgent need to acquire a new centre-half could yet have repercussions on a deal for Tierney, which has been in the pipeline for more than a month.

Scottish Champions Celtic appear to be finally paving the way for Tierney to leave and are already lining up potential replacements.

But the terms of repayment for the £25million fee have still not been finalised.

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And if Arsenal need to come up with big cash for a centre-half, it could yet affect their ability to sign Tierney.

Arsenal have already completed the signings of Nicolas Pepe, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and the on loan Dani Ceballos this summer.

Yet thanks to some creative negotiating skills they have only spent around £35million so far and have also raised a further £25million from the sales of Laurent Koscielny, Carl Jenkinson, Krystian Bielik, David Ospina, Ismael Bennacer, Xavier Amaechi and Takuma Asano.

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