Arsenal Complete Signing of Gabriel Magalhães From Lille

Arsenal have completed the signing of Gabriel Magalhães from Lille in a deal worth somewhere in the region of £27m.

The Brazilian has signed a long-term deal with the north London club, who beat out interest from Napoli, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain to secure the signature of the 22-year-old defender.

Technical director Edu said: “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.”

Manager Mikel Arteta added: “We welcome Gabriel to Arsenal. He has many qualities which will make us stronger as a defensive unit and as a team. He has proved with Lille that he is a defender with many outstanding attributes and we are looking forward to watching him grow as an Arsenal player.”

Defensive lapses have been a feature of Arsenal's play for a number of years now, but with the signing of Gabriel plus the belated arrival of William Saliba this summer, the Gunners have a chance to start fresh with a young core.

The former Brazil Under-20 international was apparently not put off by Arsenal fans' near-obsessive tracking of his movements over the past couple of weeks, from the 'normal' transfer window behaviour of tracking flights that he might be on to analysing cloud patterns in his Instagram stories.

Arsenal have yet to make a big splash in the transfer market so far this summer, but have secured the long-term futures of Pablo Mari and Cedric after their respective loans ended at the end of the season, and have signed Willian on a free transfer after his contract at Chelsea ended.

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