Arsenal are hoping to take advantage of ‘frosty’ negotiations between Napoli

Arsenal are hoping to take advantage of ‘frosty’ negotiations between Napoli and Lorenzo Insigne as the Italians try to renew his contract.

Lorenzo Insigne is out of contract with Napoli next summer and negotiations between the parties have not been going well.

In fact, according to a report from Italy, they almost collapsed on Thursday when Insigne’s lawyer met with Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli’s owner and chairman.

It is not clear why Insigne’s camp aren’t happy with that offer but we can speculate it’s likely because it doesn’t come with what has become an obligatory pay rise with all new deals.

The reason for that is probably because Insigne is 30 now and would be 35 by the end of his contract.

I find it highly unlikely Arsenal are interested in Insigne, as talented as he is.

We don’t tend to do a lot of shopping in Italy and we’re looking for raw models rather than players entering the twilight of their career.

We, of course, brought in Takehiro Tomiaysu from Bologna, but before that the last players we brought in from Italy were Lucas Torreira and Stephan Lichtsteiner.

Before that, the last player Arsenal signed from Italy was Emiliano Viviano from third tier US Palermo in 2013/14.

Of course, Insigne has only just turned 30 and has a few years left in his legs at the top level, somewhere Arsenal are still striving to get back to.

His wages are affordable at around €100kpw, although if he were to move on a free he would also want part of the transfer fee the club didn’t have to pay, loaded into his deal.