Arsenal touted for ‘careful’ £65m approach as Gunners eye ‘first’ signing before Mudryk

Arsenal will begin their FA Cup journey on Monday night with a third round clash against lower league outfit Oxford United. The Gunners were ousted at this stage of the competition last year by Nottingham Forest, and haven’t made it beyond the fourth round since they won the cup in 2020.

Mikel Arteta’s side will no doubt be keen to avoid an upset against the U’s, but before then, there is still plenty of Premier League transfer speculation to work through. Check out Friday’s Gunners-related rumours below...

Felix update revealed

Arsenal could look to bring in Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix before Shakhtar Donetsk’s Mykhailo Mudryk, according to David Ornstein. The Gunners have been linked with both players for some time, and are understood to be interested in completing deals for the duo this month.

But speaking to NBC, Ornstein has argued that Mikel Arteta’s men could move for Felix first. He said: “It will be interesting to see if Arsenal look to bring forward some business or get some other business done first. They are interested in Joao Felix at Atletico in a loan deal. If the numbers come down significantly from where they are now – and that’s why it’s not happening right now – then perhaps they’ll try and get that one in first. And that will take the pressure off them in the Mudryk pursuit.”

Mudryk limit outlined

With regards to a potential deal for Mudryk, transfer insider Dean Jones has suggested that Arsenal would be reluctant to pay more than £65 million for the player. The reporter has cited the costly deal for Nicolas Pepe as a reason for the Gunners’ renewed caution in the transfer market.

Speaking to GiveMeSport, he said: “They’re in a situation where they’re being forced to pay over the odds for a player, and they’ve got to be very, very careful here. I think for a long time, £65 million has generally been the figure I’ve been hearing that Arsenal wouldn’t want to be going over for this player. And I think we have to make comparisons to when they bought Nicolas Pepe, and they overpaid for him, and it didn’t work out.”