Arsenal are likely to keep hold of Jorginho this summer despite transfer interest from Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri, while the club also have an asking price in mind for Thomas Partey.
The Gunners are expected to make a third bid for West Ham United captain Declan Rice, as per Fabrizio Romano in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, and that could mean possible departures in that area of the pitch.
The Rice deal won’t come cheap, so this has led to understandable speculation surrounding both Jorginho and Partey, who may also find playing time increasingly hard to come by if someone of Rice’s calibre joins.
CaughtOffside have been informed that Jorginho has been a target for Lazio, with Sarri knowing him well from their time together at Napoli, but a deal currently looks unlikely.
Sources with close knowledge of the situation have informed CaughtOffside that Sarri personally asked his club for Jorginho, but the Italy international’s wage demands make the move impossible as things stand.
As has been widely reported, this has led Lazio to pursue former Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira instead. Jorginho, meanwhile, is not evaluating any other offers from leagues in Europe or elsewhere across the world as he seems happy to stay in the Premier League.
Arsenal’s position is that they would be open to letting Jorginho or Partey leave, but it looks like the latter is currently attracting more interest.
Sources told CaughtOffside that Partey’s asking price would be in the region of £30-40m, with the Gunners not necessarily ready to let him leave on the cheap.
There is understood to be interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia, but Partey himself would prefer to stay in Europe, with interest from Serie A and Ligue 1 clubs.
Juventus had looked like one option for Partey, but they are prioritising a new contract for Adrien Rabiot, which now looks increasingly likely. Were Rabiot to move on, Juventus also have Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic on their list as he has just one year remaining on his contract at the Stadio Olimpico.
Arsenal have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League so could be well advised to keep hold of players like Jorginho and Partey in order to give them more experience, though there were question-marks over Partey’s dip in form towards the end of last season.