Derby County may let some players leave this summer, but keeping hold of their young talents much be a priority.
Sure, let the likes of Curtis Davies, Martyn Waghorn and Andre Wisdom go if the budget isn’t big enough to keep them, but losing the young core would hurt.
That’s Louie Sibley, Max Bird, Jason Knight and Lee Buchnan, with the latter now being linked away from Pride Park.
The Daily Mail claim that Arsenal are interested in signing Buchanan, seemingly with the idea of utilising him as backup to Kieran Tierney.
Buchanan, 20, has been with the Rams for more than 10 years now, having joined the club as a kid from down the road in Mansfield.
The left back hasn’t always been a regular starter for the Rams, but he has shown potential in his 34 league appearances over the course of the season.
That potential has sparked interest from Arsenal, and they’re unlikely to be the only Premier League team casting admiring glances his way, especially after huge praise from boss Wayne Rooney.
Derby’s priority must be to keep hold of Buchanan unless Arsenal cough up enough money to allow the Rams to feed the cash into a squad rebuild, with Buchanan one of the players Derby would ideally need to build around moving forward.