Arsenal Eyeing Moves for Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Adrien Rabiot

Arsenal have reportedly made a bid to land defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund.

According to the Express, the Gunners have a made a bid in the region of £12m plus add ons, but the German club are said to want a fee closer to the £20m mark.

Arsene Wenger has been scouring the market for a defender to replace Thomas Vermaelen, who left for Barcelona earlier in the summer, and looks to have turned to the Greek international.

Papastathopoulos, who is commonly known just as Sokratis, joined Dortmund just last summer from Werder Bremen for £7.5m.

Even though he got a good amount of games last season, he has now fallen down the pecking order, following the recovery of first-choice defender Neven Subotic, who missed the most of last season through injury and will partner new Dortmund captain Mats Hummels at the back.

Even new signing Mathias Ginter is vying for a place at the heart of the Dortmund defence leaving the Greek defender seeking a new challenge as his chances of regular game time have severely diminished.

However, it is believed that a compromise could be reached between the two clubs as Papastathopoulos has been deemed surplus to requirements by the German club, which will give Wenger renewed hope at landing the defender.

Meanwhile, it is believed that Arsenal are still pursuing a deal for Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot despite reports suggesting that an initial bid from the north London club has already been rejected.

The report claims that the Ligue 1 champions are holding out for a fee in the region of £16 - £20m, for the midfielder, who is on the final-year of his contract.

Even Arsene Wenger has admitted that Arsenal are still on the transfer market and are open to strengthening any position.

"We are open to any position as long as the player can strengthen the team.Buy to buy, I do not see the point.If we think we can have a player who can bring something to our team, we'll see.We are open," Wenger said, as quoted by French newspaper Le10 Sport.