Jerome Boateng shows off his skills during training
Arsenal and Manchester United are both in the market for defenders after failing to secure a top four finish in the Premier League.
The Gunners could still secure Champions League football with a win over Chelsea in Wednesday’s Europa League final, but will need to strengthen their squad if they are to compete at the highest level.
Both clubs were put on alert on Monday after Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness told fans that Boateng is now surplus to requirements - and should find a new club in the summer.
Hoeness told BR: “I would recommend him as a friend to leave the club.
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Jerome Boateng won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 (Image: GETTY)
Current Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi has failed to perform this season, but he is desperate to impress fans during their clash with Chelsea this week.
“[The final] is going to be a game where one mistake punishes you and that’s why we’ve got to be very careful,” he told GOAL.
“Our job as defenders is to try not to concede goals, but if you make 90 per-cent of your job and in the 10 per-cent the opponent scores a goal, people forget about the 90 per-cent.
“The coach prefers that we make mistakes but still play our game instead of just playing anything so he cannot identify us with the game we were supposed to be playing.
Unai Emery is desperate for transfer backing from his Arsenal bosses (Image: GETTY)
Jerome Boateng could replace Shkodran Mustafi at Arsenal (Image: GETTY)
“You want to finish the game knowing you did this, this, this and that is why you won the game. Rather than saying, ‘How the hell did we win that, because we were bad’.
“That will not bring you consistency. You are not going to win without an identity and that was how we wanted to play.
“In our team not a lot of players have played in a club level final like this, so for us it is huge.”
Arsenal meet Chelsea in Baku on Wednesday as they look to seal a place in the group stages of next year’s Champions League.