Big choice for Arsenal as they would have to sell at least one star to finance move for £85m ace

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We’ve seen this season with Nicolas Pepe that Arsenal shelling out big money for a wide forward isn’t always a good idea, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do it again.

The Express has reported on Arsenal’s interest in Bayer Leverkusen star Leon Bailey and it could force The Gunners into making some interesting choices.

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Firstly the report suggests that Chelsea are heavily interested so that means Arsenal may have to make a better offer to land him, so that could be expensive anyway.

They also state that Bailey would cost around £85m, so Arsenal would need to sell some players to raise that cash. The prime candidate would be someone like Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, but it’s also worth pointing out that he wouldn’t raise that much, so another big name might have to go as well.

That report suggests that Alexandre Lacazette could be the other to make way, but it’s possible that players like Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Hector Bellerin or even Pepe himself could raise that kind of money if there was enough interest.

This shows the real problem that will face Mikel Arteta as he looks to rebuild the club – he just won’t get the money to buy a whole new team so he needs to be smart in the transfer market, and that could include selling a star player to strengthen somewhere else in the team.

At this point it’s purely just paper talk so nothing has been agreed, but it looks set to be an interesting Summer for Arsenal.

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