Unai Emery is reportedly pushing Arsenal to launch a bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, but it will potentially cost the Gunners £55m or more.
The 26-year-old enjoyed another stellar campaign last year, scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists in 36 appearances for Palace.
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Having shown consistency and real quality in the final third in recent years, Zaha has seemingly attracted interest from north London with a summer bid touted.
According to The Sun, Emery is particularly keen on signing the talented winger this summer, but it could take a bid of £55m+ to prise him away from their Premier League rivals, while it’s noted that the Gunners may need to sell first in order to increase their touted £45m summer transfer budget.
While signing Zaha would undoubtedly give them a huge boost in the final third to offer them real width along with pace, movement and direct running at defenders, there is another area of the squad which needs to be addressed this summer.
Arsenal conceded 51 goals in 38 Premier League games last season, and so while it’s all well and good searching for attacking reinforcements to complement the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, they need to sort out the backline as a priority.
With that in mind, if they do have limited funds this summer, then perhaps question marks can be raised over Emery’s desire to sign Zaha as not only does he already have plenty of quality in that department, but he risks using a huge portion of his summer transfer budget, perhaps even all of it, just for the one signing of Zaha.
Time will tell how he manages the situation and how he increases the budget by axing players, but Zaha is seemingly a top target based on this report.
