Arsenal transfer twist on bargain Odsonne Edouard fee

Arsenal are in the market for a new striker in the summer, with their list of targets taking the regular route of being theirs for the taking and the suddenly beyond their reach within a matter of hours. It’s the transfer season. That’s how it goes. And it’s happened with Odsonne Edouard.

The Frenchman has been one of British football’s hot properties for the past two seasons, finding his feet in the Scottish divisions to then cement his place as one of the countries most lethal strikers alongside Rangers rival Alfredo Morelos.

Odsonne Edouard‘s record of 57 goals and 25 assists in 100 Scottish Premiership outings reads well, especially when his first season at the the club, an initial loan spell in 2017, was just his second senior campaign at age 19.

He’d go on to score 23 goals in all competitions the following term and then hit 29 in 47 outings the season after, putting clubs in the Premier League and Europe on red alert.

Arsenal transfer twist on bargain Odsonne Edouard fee as Premier League sides make u-turn on Celtic centre-forward

This time around he’s found the back of the net 20 times in 34 appearances, a less prolific return but still almost an almost identical goals to game ratio.

Coming up to the final year of his deal with the Bhoys in the summer, a lack of desire from Edouard to sign an extension has piqued interest, as Celtic have become more willing to allow the centre-forward they signed for £9m to leave for a fee this window than see him depart on a free in less than 18 months’ time.

Roma have been credited among Arsenal and Aston Villa in keeping tabs on the 23-year-old, but so too have Leicester, where his former manager Brendan Rodgers has been tracking his progress with a view to making him the long-term successor to 34-year-old Jamie Vardy.

Given his contract situation, a fee hovering around the £20m mark – some saying as low as £15m – would be enough to prise the former Paris Saint-Germain forward away from Parkhead. However, there has been a twist regarding all those south of the border.