Villarreal hoping to strengthen defence with Arsenal veteran | OneFootball

Villarreal have enjoyed a busy but successful market so far, selling Nicolas Jackson and Pau Torres for in excess of €70m, while adding five players for the total cost of €2.5m.

Yet Quique Setien looks to be hoping to significantly revamp the Villarreal squad, with potential for Samuel Chukwueze and Arnaut Danjuma to move on too.

One of the areas they are hoping to strengthen is the right-back slot. Fabrizio Romano revealed one of their targets to Caught Offside on his exclusive Substack column.

“Cedric [Soares] is attracting interest from different countries including Spain with Villarreal but his salary is too big for them right now.”

Soares, 31, spent last season on loan at Fulham where he barely featured, making just 8 appearances for 290 minutes. He has returned to Arsenal since, but having been left off their preseason tour, looks likely to leave.

Whether or not Villarreal can negotiate his wages down, or perhaps gain a contribution from Arsenal does not seem beyond the question – similar happened with Hector Bellerin last season.

The Yellow Submarine have Juan Foyth performing well there, but often looked short during his semi-regular absences last season.