Arsenal Transfers: £8 Million Fee Agreed For Chelsea's David Luiz

Arsenal swoop in with a shock move for Chelsea's ball-playing centre-back.

by Andrew Pollard
David Luiz
By Brian Minkoff- London Pixels - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61672796

As Arsenal manager Unai Emery looks to add to his central defensive options, The Gunners have agreed a deal to sign Chelsea’s David Luiz.

According to The Mirror, a fee of £8 million has been agreed to take the opinion-splitting Brazilian to The Emirates.

Emery has previously worked with the centre-back during his time in charge of Paris St-Germain, and the Spaniard clearly views Luiz’s ability to bring the ball out of defence as an attribute that would fit in well with his Arsenal team.

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The player only actually signed a new Chelsea deal three months ago – a deal that tied him to Stamford Bridge until 2021 – so it seems a little strange that Frank Lampard’s men would be happy to allow the 32-year-old to leave for such a relatively small fee as £8 million. Either way, it looks as if this move is most certainly "on".

Having seen captain Laurent Koscielny depart for Bordeaux this week, Emery was desperately in need of at least one new centre-half – and it appears that the former Sevilla manager views Luiz as the perfect man to lead his backline.

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Additionally, Arsenal are also close to completing a £25 million deal for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney; the player currently in London for a medical ahead of signing for The Gunners before today’s 5pm transfer deadline.

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.