Arsenal star ‘attracts interest’ from Serie A giants as Gunners ‘told’ price tag for summer target

Arsenal are picking up the pieces following their disappointing Europa League exit against Sportin CP.

The Gunners were favourites to progress, particularly being home in the second leg, but they exited after losing on penalties. On the plus side, Mikel Arteta’s men can now concentrate on their Premier League title charge, currently five points clear of Manchester City. On that topic, Arsenal face Crystal Palace in the Premier League this Sunday, and a managerless Palace no less following the sacking of Patrick Vieira.

In the meantime, we have rounded up all the latest news surrounding the Emirates Stadium.

Balogun interest

AC Milan are said to be interested in a deal to sign Arsenal starlet Folarin Balogun.

According to Football Insider, Milan could be interested in a deal worth between £35million and £40million. Balogun has been in superb form for loan club Stade Reims, scoring 16 times in 21 appearances.

But competition at Arsenal is intense amid the presence of Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah. It will be interesting to see how the Gunners approach any possible interest.

Diaby latest

Journalist Jonathan Johnson believes Bayer Leverkusen star Moussa Diaby could be better suited to Newcastle United than Arsenal.

“I think Moussa Diaby’s name is coming up a lot ahead of the summer because he’s grown a lot since he left PSG to move to Germany with Bayer Leverkusen,” he told CaughtOffside. “We’re seeing links with the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle, and PSG themselves have also been linked with an interest in re-signing him.

“I’m personally not the biggest fan of the idea of PSG bringing back players that they let go for a low amount, as that can’t be considered smart business. Still, there’s no doubt about it – he’s a much better player than he was when he left PSG, much more developed, and it doesn’t surprise me to see clubs like Arsenal and Newcastle linked with him.

“He’s more than just a very speedy player, he’s got a lot of versatility on that left-hand side, and I personally think he’s most well suited to playing in a more attacking role, but he’s also done well as a wing-back. He’s arriving at a point in his career now where he needs to make the next step, and perhaps a Newcastle-like project would be a good fit for him in terms of where he’s at right now.

“But I do think there’ll be a number of clubs across Europe looking at him in the next few months, and a return to Ligue 1 has certainly been raised in the last few months. Still, with PSG’s financial constraints I’m not sure they’ll be able to stump up the kind of money Leverkusen would want for him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had an asking price of €50m or just over that, something in the €40-50m range.

“There might be a scope to structure the deal so that the initial fee is a bit lower, but the overall structure of the deal is still likely to come up to around the €50m mark. I can’t see Leverkusen letting him go for anything less than a starting fee of around €30m.”