Posted on Monday, 30th January 2012 by Tony Merakli

Arsenal are ready to enter the race for Watford defender .

According to The Sun, Newcastle and Swansea are currently frontrunners for the 25-year-old’s signature, but , who saw his side leak two goals yesterday against Aston Villa, is ready to make a shock move for Mariappa after watching his impressive showing against Spurs in the FA Cup last Friday.

Newcastle have already had a £1.5 million bid rejected by the Championship side, but The Hornets would be willing to do business at around the £4 million mark.

While this could be beyond both Newcastle and Swansea’s budget, Arsenal may be tempted to offer the asking price and reinforce their back-line without having to splash the cash.

Mariappa is a 5’11’’ versatile defender who can play at centre-back or as an emergency right-back. The Englishman would certainly provide competition for the first-team having played over 200 games for Watford since 2005.

Like what you read? Then follow me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/Gunnersphere

Visit and Join our Facebook page, click HERE to do so.

Gunnersphere is currently looking for new writers to join the squad. Contact via twitter or at Gunnersphere@snack-media.com for further details.

Related posts:

Tags: ,
Posted in Tabloid Talk | Comments (2)

2 Responses to “Gunners to make shock move for Hornets defender?”

  • ATID Says:
    January 30th, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    the only shock for me is that we should have done this jan 1st, now sagna is returning and jenkinson supposedly not far away it is a strange one, but perhaps wenger wants extra protection as we are fighting on 3 fronts, if we can get a left version too that would be great….vertonghen in for squillaci and hopefully samba in for djourou.
    yennaris and miquel can go on loan.

    [Reply]

  • Mash Says:
    January 30th, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    Mark my words no defenders for sure

    [Reply]

Leave a Reply