Arsenal plan new HISTORIC offer in severe blow to Liverpool

Arsenal reportedly plan to make a historic offer in the coming weeks. It's one that will be a blow to Liverpool.

Liverpool are in the middle of another difficult contract situation. Ibrahima Konaté's contract expires at the end of the campaign and while the Reds want to keep him, he's not so sure.

After all, Konaté stands to make an awful lot of money if he leaves the club on a free transfer. At the very least, sourcing potential options makes sense and it appears he wants to have a look.

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But it may already be more than that. Real Madrid are heavily linked with a move for Konaté and were all summer long.

He's their latest free transfer target, much as Trent Alexander-Arnold was for the entirety of last season. They're hoping Konaté runs his contract down so they can sign him without a fee, though he's not necessarily their top target.

AS in Spain have claimed that William Saliba is actually Real Madrid's top centre-back target. They might even move for Marc Guehi, too.

But about that...

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Arsenal and William Saliba

Saliba will have one year left on his contract next summer and Real Madrid hope to use that to pressure Arsenal into a cut-price sale. But the Gunners aren't taking that lying down.

TeamTalk claims they're set to offer Saliba a record-breaking contract. Arsenal will make the defender the highest-paid player in club history.

That's an extraordinary offer, given the likes of Mesut Ozil were publicly on £300k per week at one stage. Putting Saliba above that would comfortably make him the best-paid defender in football.

That may well see off Real Madrid and commit Saliba to Arsenal for the rest of his peak. It's the kind of offer Liverpool absolutely will not make to Konaté - Virgil van Dijk is not on that kind of money, after all.

So not only would this eliminate Saliba as a target for Los Blancos, but it would also give Konaté extra motivation to demand a massive wage. He'll feel, quite rightly, that he should be paid in line with his international teammate.

A blow this, then. Liverpool could really do with Saliba being out there as a Real Madrid target, taking attention away from Konaté.

But there's a long way to go here and plenty more twists in the story.

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