Arsenal reportedly continue to hold an interest in Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, but they will need to sell players first in order to afford his price-tag and wages.
The Gunners are coming off the back of a bitterly disappointing campaign in which they failed to break back into the top four in the Premier League and lost in the Europa League final to rivals Chelsea.
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In turn, they missed out on the Champions League again, and so doubts remain over their ability to attract the top names to the Emirates this summer.
According to The Times though, they remain keen on Zaha to help bolster Unai Emery’s attacking options for next season, but the report notes that Henrikh Mkhitaryan and others would need to be axed first in order to raise the funds necessary for the £80m-rated Ivorian international.
The 26-year-old had another impressive season last year as he bagged 10 goals and 10 assists in 34 league appearances, and so given his ability to offer real width, pace, direct running and creativity in the final third, he would be a quality addition to the Arsenal squad.
However, with the likes of Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil struggling to impress last season, it’s easier said than done to get them off the books to create space for transfer targets, and so it remains to be seen if Arsenal’s plan comes together to put them in a position to go for Zaha this summer.
Further, £80m is a lot of money for a player who has not yet shown his quality at the very highest level on a consistent basis, and so it could be argued that Arsenal would be well advised to negotiate and lower that figure significantly to get a more realistic idea of how much money would need to be raised.
