Crystal Palace have labelled Arsenal’s £40million offer for Wilfried Zaha as “embarrassing”, according to the Sun.
Arsenal’s offer was also structured over five years and included a discount if they paid the fee early.
Palace – under no imperative to sell after receiving £45m from United for Aaron Wan-Bissaka – rate Zaha at £120million.
VERDICT
Arsenal’s reported £40m bid for Zaha didn’t seem to stack up, with manager Unai Emery only having a £40m budget in total and big problems at the back. A structured deal over five years makes sense but must also make Arsenal fans despair. After a terrible end to the Wenger era and a stop-start first Emery season, fans must be asking where all the money is. The board didn’t give Emery much to play with in January, with Denis Suarez the only player arriving on loan. He didn’t work out and has now moved on loan to Celta de Vigo. Arsenal maintain that it’s all about financial fair play and one of the biggest problems here is Mesut Ozil. He was in and out of the team last season but is on an eye-watering salary of £350,000-a-week. That deal was signed in February 2018 and runs until 2021 and it’s really hard to see who would be willing to come in and match those wages, as well as paying a fee. Emery inherited these problems and is now being asked to perform miracles in a market that’s stupidly inflated. A £120m valuation for Zaha is proof of that.