TARIQ LAMPTEY is on the brink of signing a bumper new long-term Brighton contract.
Lamptey, 20, will net a big pay hike from the £14,000-a-week deal he agreed when joining from Chelsea for an initial £4m this time last year.
The rampaging right-back has been Brighton’s standout player this season with a string of eye-catching displays.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is understood to be a huge fan as he looks to overhaul his squad.
German giants Bayern Munich are also watching him closely.
So Amex chiefs are keen to get Lamptey — currently crocked — to extend a deal that runs out in summer 2023.
Arsenal are reportedly ready to make a move if they lose Hector Bellerin to Barcelona.
And with the Gunners enduring a torrid first half of the season, it would be no surprise if Arteta shakes things up this month.
Bellerin was reportedly on Paris Saint-Germain’s shortlist in the summer, but Arteta managed to rebuff any advances for the right wing-back.
But interest from Barcelona might prove too difficult to bat away.
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Bellerin, 25, was born in the city but only made it as far as the youth teams before moving to London to join Arsenal in 2011.
And according to The Mirror, Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta, who is favourite to win the election, ‘wants Bellerin’.
But the Gunners already have a replacement in mind in the form of Brighton’s maruauding wing-back Lamptey.
Arsenal have reportedly been ‘monitoring him closely’ – with Manchester City and Bayern Munich also linked.
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