The £26m bargain defender swoop Arsenal must race to beat Man Utd to this summer

It’s Wrestlemania this weekend. The Rock is back, and he’s a bad guy now, in case you were wondering. Nothing sells quite like nostalgia, it seems. Hell, it would even appear that Arsenal and Manchester United have been struck down with grappling fever and are spending their spare time going back through old WWE videotapes. In particular, the Premier League super heavyweights look to have stumbled across that vintage Summerslam bout where Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio had a ladder match for the custody of Rey’s son, Dominik, and are apparently eager to recreate something similar during this summer’s transfer window.

Clunky drop intro aside, the player suspended above the figurative ring is none other than Barcelona defender Mikayil Faye. According to reports in Italy, as relayed by TeamTalk, United have been scouting the starlet for some time, but the Gunners have sneaked in while their back is turned, and are looking to hit their rivals with an RKO outta nowhere to win the battle for his signature.

Faye himself is a Senegalese centre-back who is still yet to make a first team appearance for Barca, although he did score on his senior international debut for his home country just last month. The 19-year-old is also capable of operating on the left side of defence, and previously registered a handful of appearances for Croatian outfit NK Kustosija Zagreb before signing for the Catalan giants last July. Got all that? Good, there’ll be a quiz at the end.

From United’s perspective, Faye is one of three young defenders that wealthy transfer benefactor Sir Jim Ratcliffe is said to be monitoring intently. Everton standout Jarrad Branthwaite is very much on his radar, as is Boca Juniors gem Aaron Anselmino. In no way is this an either/or situation, though; the understanding is that Ratcliffe ideally wants all three, and would be willing to pay anywhere up to £122 million to secure their combined services.

This, of course, is where Arsenal come in. Like United, they too have been casting a beady eye over Faye, and have been thoroughly enamoured with his performances for Barca’s B team in recent months. Indeed, Faye - as well as steadily developing into an imperiously dependable defensive presence - has scored four times in 25 appearances for the reserves this season, with all four of those goals coming in his last six outings. Quite the hot streak.

The plan, presumably, would be to parachute the left-footed prodigy into the periphery of Mikel Arteta’s first team squad before nurturing his obvious promise as a long term successor to the 26-year-old Gabriel Magalhaes. It’s a scheme so dastardly it might just work, and not least because Faye may end up being surprisingly affordable this summer.

Despite having an official release clause of £343 million, and a contract in Spain that is expected to run until 2027, Barcelona’s ongoing financial strife could convince them to part company with the teenager for a heavily, heavily reduced fee. Reports in Italy claim that Faye could be available for somewhere in the region of £17 million, while mutterings from Catalonia suggest that his asking price may be closer to £26 million.

Either way, in years to come and given the current trajectory of his personal progression, that sort of rough valuation may eventually be regarded as, to quote the common parlance, ‘an absolute steal’.

It is for this reason that Arsenal should be really turning the screw on United in the contest to sign Faye this summer. Rarely do Barcelona cast off precocious talents of his ilk, and rarer still are they so readily inexpensive. The Gunners could not only clinch a bargain, but also gazump one of their bitterest historical foes in the process.