Eddie Nketiah could leave Arsenal this summer as Olympique Marseille gets serious about signing him.
The Ligue 1 side has lost former Gunner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and is looking for a new striker to replace the Gabon star.
Roberto de Zerbi has been keen to work with Nketiah since he managed Brighton in the Premier League and has asked his current employers to make a move for him.
Nketiah is struggling for game time at Arsenal, where he is behind Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz in the pecking order.
The striker could be open to the move and has already agreed to personal terms with OM.
It is now time for a club-to-club agreement, and a report in The Sun claims OM has sent in a bid worth £16.8 million.
That is just over half the £30 million Arsenal values the striker at, but both parties continue to talk in hopes of reaching an agreement as soon as possible.
Arsenal wants to sign a new striker in this transfer window, and selling Nketiah will create space in their squad and wage bill to accommodate one.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Selling Nketiah is one of the most important things we will do this summer, and we might not get another interested club if we don’t sell to OM.
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If clubs really wanted Eddie, then there would be no problem getting bids in that were at least close to Arsenal’s valuation. Sadly, he isn’t in that much demand.
A footballer (along with any other commodity for sale) is – at the end of the day – only “worth” what another club is prepared to pay. Arsenal can demand anything they like for Eddie but they won’t get it if it’s considered to be too much.
The calculation Arsenal must make now is accepting less money for Eddie even after any further negotiation or not selling him (with all the knock-on implications from that).
If OM wants him then let them pay our price for the striker their new manager wants.
And if they don’t pay then Eddie remains at Arsenal (unless a loan can be arranged) taking up a squad place and wages when Arsenal really want to offload players now.
He’s not likely to get that much game time if he stays so in all probability his price will further diminish by this time next season. I don’t think that’s a good business alternative.
Anything lower than £30 millions is quite por business from Arsenal, Eddie is home grown and would be a very god player for many teams in PL. But if he only wants Marseille, we might have to compromise on the fee. Selling him is very important.
The problem is no team has enquired about Nketia except OM which has limited our bargaining power.
Based on this fact, i think we will be over punching if we are asking for 30m. I will suggest he leaves on loan with obligation to buy if the money is not available to any interested club.
The transfer market has been slow across the board so far. Has there been any other interest in Nketiah apart from OM? The quoted offer is basement level and perhaps emphasises our previous poor record when selling.
Everyone says we undersell our players but what is the alternative. The bids aren’t exactly flooding in for him. We can’t force clubs into paying what we value the player. Do we really want to keep Nketia another year, taking up a place in the squad although it’s obvious he’s not going to play often,or do we get as much as we can and get on with it.
Exactly! It’s all well and good saying to OM “pay up or else” but they almost certainly won’t.
In a transfer market the size of Europe (and beyond probably) there’s usually an alternative to be had.
The problem for Arsenal is that alternative buyers for Eddie are by no means as numerous as possible alternative strikers are for OM.
I’m thinking the problem is likely his 100k weekly wages.