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Nasser Al Khelaifi, the chairman and CEO of PSG, was spotted in Madrid a few hours ago and it spurned a whole bunch of new rumours. According to most reports, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi is in Madrid to negotiate primarily with Atlético Madrid about Oblak, but he is also expected to stop at Real Madrid's office to talk about a possible Thomas Meunier deal.
Why would Real Madrid pursue Meunier? Well, Danilo wanted to move to greener pastures and this departure left a gaping hole in Real Madrid's defense. Just like last season, this squad is two (exceptional) players deep. However, it does have two glaring weaknesses. One is a backup right-back, and the other is a backup striker.
Nacho is a wonderful Swiss knife in defense, but if we want to use him as both centre-back and right-back backup, then we are spreading ourselves unnecessarily thin. It would take two injuries to either Carvajal or our centre-backs and we are in trouble. God forbid if this situation arises before a crucial match in the league or Champions league.
Then, there is Achraf “Arra” Hakimi, the right-back pearl of La Cantera. Achraf produced decent performances during the US preseason tour and it convinced some that he might just do as a backup. He is a wonderfully talented full-back and he was rightfully promoted so quickly to Juvenil A and consequently to Castilla. Right now, he is the heir apparent to Dani Carvajal, but it might not be best for him to stay in the first team as Kiyan Sobhani explained.
So, where does this leave us? I'm all for Meunier, provided that he comes for a reasonable fee. By reasonable, I mean pre-2016/17 reasonable. He is a solid option to have and he's old enough to not block Achraf's path to the first team.