Arsenal are considering offering a player as part of their bid to sign Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace, according to reports.
Eze is on Arsenal’s shortlist for the summer transfer window with Mikel Arteta keen to recruit a versatile attacking player alongside a new striker.
Palace, however, are standing firm over Eze’s availability and are demanding that Arsenal, or any other interested club, pay the 27-year-old’s release clause, which could total £68 million after bonuses.
Arsenal have already spent £55m on signing Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, plus a further £5m on Kepa Arrizabalaga, while they are also close to agreeing a €80m (£69m) deal with Sporting CP to sign Viktor Gyokeres and are set to sign Brentford captain Christian Norgaard for £12m.
Eze would represent another significant outlay and according to The Sun, Arsenal are considering the prospect of including a player as part of their bid to Palace.
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The report adds that Eze is open to joining Arsenal, who are willing to offer Palace a ‘promising defender’ as a makeweight in the deal to sign Palace’s talisman.
Liverpool have also considered a move for Eze while last month, Paul Scholes urged Manchester United to sign the midfielder after he emerged as one of the only positives from England’s 3-1 defeat to Senegal.
Speaking after last summer’s transfer window, Palace chairman Steve Parish admitted he was ‘astounded’ by the lack of interest in Eze.
‘I was really worried from a club point of view of losing Michael [Olise] and Ebbs in the same window and we didn’t have in Ebbs the interest that I thought we would have,’ Parish told Sky Sports.
‘I was astounded. Genuinely astounded. I mean, the guy’s just an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person.’
Eze, meanwhile, has made no secret of his desire to join a club that can challenge for the Premier League title.
‘Everything there is for me to win, I want to win, and I’ll do anything I possibly can to win the Premier League,’ he told Sky Sports in May.
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