Have Arsenal already lined up £10m January signing of Smalling?

I know that a lot of Arsenal fans will not exactly be jumping through hoops over the latest Arsenal transfer rumour linking the club with the Manchester United and England international defender Chris Smalling. But then a lot of Arsenal fans were pretty negative about the transfer deadline day capture of Danny Welbeck as well.

And I think it is fair to say that most people now think that Arsene Wenger did a great bit of business for Arsenal in bringing the England striker to the Emirates, while United fans have been grumbling about it ever since. So if Louis van Gaal wants to offload another talented young player for a bargain price, who are we to stop him.

And that is what the Metro report claims is possibly going to happen in January. Van Gaal is apparently planning to blow another small fortune to take a big name defender to Old Trafford and that will mean that Smalling could be available for as little as £10 million.

And the report claims that Wenger is on this one like a bad smell, having apparently nearly done the deal this summer. It might not be the big name defender many fans were hoping for but he is versatile, experienced and still young enough to perfect his game at Arsenal.