Arsenal envision ‘unreal’ £ 30million star with dizzying potential, could move in January

Arsenal are hunting down Sergino Dest for a possible transfer of the defender in January, with Barcelona weighing on the American’s future at Camp Nou, according to Marca.

Dest only moved to Catalonia last year after leaving Ajax to replace Nelson Semedo, who had joined Wolves. The 21-year-old became Ronald Koeman’s first signing to lead the La Liga giants at € 21million (£ 18million), plus a further € 5million (£ 4million), on a five-year contract.

But Dest has struggled to settle in Spain and is no longer Barcelona’s first-choice right-back after hiring Xavi Hernandez. The Blaugrana icon instead favored center-half Ronald Araujo and also recently convinced Dani Alves to return to the club.

Barcelona now see Dest as a possible salable asset in January as part of their continued attempt to improve their finances. He is still young, so can still grow up, and is an international regular.

Add to that that he was a Koeman signing, Xavi is unlikely to oppose any transfer as he puts his mark. Barcelona, ​​however, are said to want € 30-35million (£ 25-30million) to sell Dest next month.

Arsenal are following Dest’s situation at Barcelona

Arsenal and Bayern Munich are following Dest’s situation at Barcelona ahead of the January transfer window. Neither side has approached yet, but at least retains some interest.

The Gunners had also considered a deal for the Almere, Netherlands native this summer. However, sport noted that Dest showed no interest in leaving Barcelona for Arsenal at the time.

Instead, Dest focused on continuing to grow under Koeman, knowing he had the backing of the head coach. Barcelona were also ready to keep the USMNT full-back at 15 caps and reject any advances from Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Monaco.

Now, however, Barcelona are open for sale under Xavi so Arsenal can seal a Dest transfer.

Dest has huge potential he can realize with the transfer from the Gunners

Dest could also reconsider his position at Camp Nou if Arsenal aim for a transfer for the Barcelona defender. He has made 16 appearances this season, but only appeared in three of the seven games under Xavi. He’s also only played 139 of a possible 630 minutes so far.

Still, the Gunners now have an established right-back at Takehiro Tomiyasu. So, Dest could suffer a similar fate and be number two with a transfer to Arsenal like he does to Barcelona.

USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter is convinced that Dest can have a great future in the game, however.

“Sergino is an interesting player because it’s almost like the sky is the limit for him,” Berhalter said, via quotes from Goal this month of October. “He can be as good as he wants and you saw him today with his attacking play. It’s unreal.