Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães has been heavily sought-after by a host of clubs across Europe and the Premier League with Manchester United reported being frontrunners to sign the €30m-rated Lille star.
However, it seems Arsenal have hijacked the signing from the Red Devils as French outlets France Bleu, and La Voix de la Nord (via Daily Record) claim the club to have held face-to-face talks with the Brazilian this week.
Having already bought Nicolas Pepe for a £72m fee from the French side, Arsenal will hope that their relationship with Lille would pay dividends again to get the deal over the line.
Rampant hint-dropping on display last night
Things took a wild turn last night as an Arsenal fan popped up on Gabriel’s live session on Instagram, commenting, ‘touch your hat if you’re joining Arsenal.’
Considering most of such comments on Instagram’s live sessions usually get ignored by the players, the fact that the Brazilian seemed to oblige to it deeply excited the Arsenal fanbase.
The 22-year-old had a smile on his face as he appeared to acknowledge the comment by adjusting his hat.
The incident on Instagram took place after the Gunners’ official Twitter account for its Spanish-speaking users had ‘liked’ a tweet about Gabriel joining Arsenal.
The official account was quick to unlike the tweet, but a screenshot of the same can be seen below –
