West Ham, Wolves battling Napoli in chase to sign €20m former Arsenal defender

West Ham and Wolves are reportedly in a fight with Serie A giants Napoli to snap up a former Arsenal defender this summer.

The Hammers are still looking to make their first signing of the summer, despite recouping more than £100million from the sale of Decan Rice to Arsenal, while Wolves are in the middle of a rebuild of their own after offloading top stars Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez.

And, according to reports in Germany, the Premier League duo are both looking to strike a deal for Wolfsburg star Konstantinos Mavropanos.

Napoli want the former Gunners star to replace Kim Min-jae, who completed a €50m transfer to Bayern Munich this summer.

And with other reported targets proving too costly, journalist Florian Plettenberg claims Mavropanos is now very much on their radar – with Stuttgart asking for €20m for the Greece international’s services.

But the reigning Serie A champions are facing major competition from England for the 25-year-old.

Mavropanos is no stranger to England, having been on Arsenal’s books from 2018 to 2022.

Mavropanos becomes key man at Stuttgart

He was sold to Stuttgart for just €4m last summer after an initial loan spell, having only made eight senior appearances for the Gunners – although he wasn’t helped by suffering injury issues during his time in north London.

He has since gone on to become a key player for Stuttgart, scoring eight times and adding two assists in 89 matches.

Mavropanos has also won 19 caps for Greece and would certainly represent a solid but for either the Hammers or Wolves at that asking price.

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