Arsenal turned from Konsa to Quansah, and Leverkusen say he is not for sale either

Arsenal have added a second name to a centre-back search that is now five days from a deadline of its own. Sky Sports and ESPN both reported on Friday that the champions have sounded out Bayer Leverkusen about Jarell Quansah, the 23-year-old England defender who left Liverpool for Germany a year ago.

ESPN put the contact at an early stage, conducted through intermediaries rather than between the clubs. Leverkusen’s answer, relayed by Sky in Germany, was that Quansah is not for sale.

Arsenal start the season on Friday without half a back four

Mikel Arteta’s side open the defence of their title at home to Frank Lampard’s Coventry City at 8pm on Friday 21 August. William Saliba will not play in it, and neither will Jurrien Timber.

Saliba’s back problem dates to March and got worse at the World Cup. Arteta described him after the Dortmund friendly as being in “rest mode”, with two weeks of doing almost nothing behind him and no return date attached. Timber, working back from the groin injury that cost him the World Cup with the Netherlands, is training again but still weeks from selection.

Sky’s own reading of the numbers is blunt: Arsenal win 68 per cent of the matches Saliba starts and 50 per cent of the ones he does not.

Villa have not moved on Konsa

Ezri Konsa remains the first choice, and the problem there has not changed in a fortnight. Villa value him at around £60 million. Arsenal’s offers have come in well short of that, reported at somewhere between £30 million and £40 million depending on the source, and Villa’s stated preference has been to keep him and put fresh terms in front of him instead.

Konsa fits because he covers both absences by himself, centre-back being his position and right-back his second one. That is exactly the shape of the hole Saliba and Timber have left. It is also why Villa know what they have.

Quansah is not obviously easier

Leverkusen paid Liverpool £30 million for Quansah last summer. He played 44 matches in his first season in the Bundesliga, went to the World Cup with England, and has four years left on his contract. Sky’s assessment is that Arsenal would have to pay considerably more than the £30 million Leverkusen spent to get a conversation started, and Leverkusen are reluctant to have one at all having bought him so recently.

So Arsenal have two targets. One club will not sell below £60 million and the other says it will not sell at any number.

Liverpool are still in this somewhere

When Liverpool sold Quansah they wrote a buy-back clause into the deal. It runs in stages rather than at one fixed price: around €80 million if triggered this year, dropping to nearer €60 million from July 2027. Liverpool have so far chosen not to use it.

Nobody has publicly explained what happens to a clause like that if the player moves to a third club in the meantime, and Arsenal buying a defender Liverpool may want back is the sort of detail that tends to get spelled out only once a deal is close. This one is not close.

Two weeks left, one of them useless

The window shuts at 11pm on Tuesday 1 September, which leaves a fortnight. Only the first five days of it are worth much to Arteta, because a defender signed after Friday night watches the Coventry match from wherever he happens to be.

Arsenal then go to Aston Villa, which will be an awkward afternoon whichever way the Konsa negotiation has gone by then.

Keep up with the rest of the transfer window