Wenger testing Everton as Arsenal boss lines up fresh £15m bid for Jagielka

By Sportsmail Reporter Updated: 07:09 EDT, 29 July 2011

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is ready to raise the stakes in his pursuit of Phil Jagielka with a bid of £15million for the Everton defender.

Wenger tabled a £10m offer last week for Jagielka - a year after offering £12m - but Everton value the 28-year-old at closer to £18m.

Frenchman Wenger is a big admirer of Jagielka and sees the England international as the ideal partner for Thomas Vermaelen at the heart of his defence.

Top target: Arsenal are determined to sign Everton defender Phil Jagielka

Everton have been linked with a move for Birmingham's Scott Dann as a potential replacement for Jagielka while Wenger has also been monitoring his situation at St Andrew's as a back-up plan if he does not land his top target.

Bolton's Gary Cahill and Chris Samba at Blackburn are other options but Jagielka has always been the one for Wenger.

With both Manchester clubs and Liverpool busy during the summer transfer market Wenger is finally getting down to business with a deal for Juan Mata also close to completion.

Valencia are ready to accept £17.5m for the attacking midfielder and personal terms will not be a problem for the Gunners, who are set to offload striker Nicklas Bendtner to Sporting Lisbon for £9m.

Mata's arrival will push Cesc Fabregas closer to his dream move home to Barcelona.

The Gunners skipper will play no part in this weekend's Emirates Cup and a deal could be done by early next week if Barcelona come up with the money.

He's the Juan: Mata is close to completing his move from Valencia to Arsenal

The Catalan giants have been unsuccessful with bids of almost £27m and £31m as Arsenal hold out for at least £35m and chairman Peter Hill-Wood admitted the saga is frustrating the north Londoners.

He said: 'They have been messing about for a year and a half now and they have got to make up their minds.

'The ball is in their court. They have made one bid of around £26m and another rather tentative one.

'If they want to buy the player they are going to have to pay the right price – and when you look at what is being paid elsewhere I don’t think what we are asking is at all unreasonable.'

Homeward bound: Cesc Fabregas

Asked whether the time was approaching when the Arsenal would call off talks, Hill-Wood added: 'We are getting close to that.'

Meanwhile, Everton defender Sylvain Distin insists keeping hold of Jagielka is as important as bringing in one or two new faces to take the team forward.

Toffees boss David Moyes will probably have to sell players before he can freshen up his squad but Distin does not want to Jagielka leave Goodison Park.

'Hopefully none of the top players will leave but I think we definitely need to strengthen our team a bit,' Distin told the Liverpool Echo.

'If you look at the teams around us, they have got three or four if not five players, and quality players too.

'Sunderland or Newcastle, teams like that, have definitely improved their team in both numbers and quality and that is what we need. We need to improve the squad in terms of quality.

'That doesn’t mean we don’t have quality now, but we have a small squad and we will get injuries - that is the Premier League - so it could be tough. One or two players would definitely help.'