Arsenal hoping for huge £20m transfer cash injection

As the dust begins to collect on whichever goal net belongs to the opposition, Arsenal and their inability to threaten in the final third exacerbates the need for quality in attacking positions.

Chelsea were able to cruise their way to a 2-0 win on Sunday with as little as a glove laid on Edouard Mendy and his defence, as Mikel Arteta was helpless watching on as the side he set out to secure a positive result came nowhere near doing so.

It didn’t even come in the form of a reassuring performance as the Gunners were second best in every department, notably in defence but also up front as they recorded an appalling xG of 0.54.

Gabriel Martinelli led the line and with Folarin Balogun coming on late into proceedings alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was only fit enough for the bench after having just one training session since recovering from COVID-19.

Arsenal hoping for £20m transfer cash injection as Mikel Arteta has interest from Crystal Palace in Eddie Nketiah in summer window

Alexandre Lacazette was unavailable entirely, as was Eddie Nketiah.

And while centre-forward is a position Arsenal would like to strengthen, it isn’t their sole issue as the problems of creativity remained prevalent. Martin Odegaard has been signed permanently with the aim of solving that and he will now be available after securing a visa.

How can Arsenal bring in another striker? How can they bring in a right-back? Well, they simply have to sell and one of those on their books is someone the club hope to accrue a fee for: Nketiah.

Rejecting the opportunity of a new contract, the 22-year-old is into the final year of his current deal and should Arsenal fail to move him on this window they risk losing him for free at the end of the campaign.

Brighton had shown interest in the Hale Ender and wanted to include Nketiah as part of the £50m sale of Ben White, an approach Arsenal turned down as they had hoped to extend his deal to earn a larger fee further down the line.

This all comes via The Athletic and since White’s addition, the Seagulls have cooled their interest.

Fortunately for Arsenal, they aren’t the only Premier League side who’ve made their feelings known and south of the Thames is where the currently injured forward could find himself a new home.

Former Invincible Patrick Vieira wants to continue strengthening his squad after seeing his side also fail to score in their opening two league matches, with Nketiah on their list.

Setting out their valuation, there is one large sticking point in negotiations that will have to be overcome as the Gunners simply must come to terms with the state of the market.

Continued…

Crystal Palace Willing to Pay £10m for Nketiah – Arsenal Want £20m

Arsenal have decided to slap a valuation of around £20m (which would be hugely beneficial this window) on Nketiah, whereas Palace are sat ready to pay half of that at £10m.

An unnamed club in Germany are also willing to match that figure with that same club already seeing two approaches knocked back by Arsenal this summer.

Somebody may give Arsenal a little wake up call: £20m for Nketiah is a figure few, if any, sides will cough up. It would be remarkable if that fee made its way over to north London with the centre-forward heading in the other direction.

The clock is ticking on the summer transfer window. Little over a week remains.

While it is entirely understandable that Arsenal want to extract as much value as they can for an academy product who has England Under-21 pedigree, is homegrown, young, and has plenty of Premier League experience, to set their stall out at £20m in the current market and based on Nketiah’s form over the past 12 months – including him barely playing, being so far down the pecking order at the club and having less than a year left on his deal – are demands beyond his worth.

One can hope this is the start of negotiations and an eventual lowering (or respective raising) of the valuation will come, but with so little time left of the window and Nketiah being up for sale ever since turning down the contract, it seems like a stretch.

If he had signed a new deal and was made available 12 months later, would Arsenal really be asking for more than £20m? That’s a question they aren’t asking themselves. The answer is no.

Being realistic, £15m is at the absolute top end of what they can be hoping for. If it’s more than that then hats off to them, but they aren’t exactly in a position of power to be wanting double what Palace are willing to pay right now.

Nketiah should have gone on loan back in January, or indeed been sold, when there was interest, and having barely kicked a ball for the first team since with his deal into its final year, Arsenal’s handling of the situation hasn’t given them much of a leg to stand on.

Knowing their is firm interest – Palace have £10m waiting to be parted with – they can’t let this opportunity slip. One can hope negotiations will see some sense come and an amicable meeting somewhere in the middle can be found. As it is though, £20m comes across as steep.