Manchester United’s sell-on clause for Wilfried Zaha means Arsenal are finding it even harder to get a transfer for the Crystal Palace star done.
The Ivory Coast international has been strongly linked with the Gunners for some time, which makes sense given the need for Unai Emery to bring in some better attacking midfield players to provide upgrades on Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
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The latest on the Zaha situation is that Arsenal face paying at least £80million for the 26-year-old, with Palace holding firm due to being obliged to pay around £15m to United if they do let him go, according to the Evening Standard.
This now looks a very ambitious deal for AFC to get done, with Zaha surely too expensive for a club who are known to have a limited budget and whose most expensive signing ever is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for £56m, as reported at the time of his arrival by BBC Sport.
Arsenal fans will hope there can be some way of bringing Zaha’s price tag down, with the Standard noting that the club may try using players as part of a swap deal.
It’s arguably a bit difficult, however, to imagine any of Arsenal’s squad players who’d particularly appeal to the Eagles.
If Arsenal cannot complete this deal, Man Utd will surely feel they’ve done well to scupper the transfer plans of one of their top four rivals.