GOAL’s Arsenal correspondent Charles Watts has provided an update surrounding the club’s pursuit of Oleksandr Zinckenko.
Watts was speaking on his YouTube channel following an exclusive report from David Ornstein which revealed that the Gunners were ‘working on a deal’ to sign the 25-year-old who has become Mikel Arteta’s ‘priority’ with Lisandro Martinez seemingly destined to join Manchester United.
Ornstein revealed that Manchester City were open to selling the Ukrainian for the right price and while the Daily Mail have claimed that the clubs have come to an agreement on £35m, Watts has had his say about the ongoing discussions..
(1:19)”I’m told they are progressing well.
“Now there’s still stuff to be ironed out but all parties are pretty open to this move being done.
“The feeling at Manchester City is that Zinchenko will leave and he will become an Arsenal player but we’ll have to wait and see how it all progresses and how these talks go.
“Can they agree on a fee because that hasn’t been agreed yet.
“The belief is that possibly around £35m is a price that they’re looking at. You would think with these talks that are taking place Arsenal are going to try and get that fee to come down a little bit.
“So we’ll wait and see if they do manage to do that but I can’t imagine personal terms or anything like that are going to be a problem.”
TIF Thoughts on Zinchenko and Arsenal…
Would you take Oleksandr Zinchenko at Arsenal?
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As confirmed by The Sun the Gunners made three bids for Martinez before he decided to join United with the third in excess of £34m which would seem to suggest that City’s valuation isn’t too far out of reach for the north London club.
While he would not be able to play centre-back like Martinez the 52-cap Ukraine ace would offer solid cover for the injury-troubled Kieran Tierney at left-back.
He has also demonstrated his ability in the centre of midfield on the international scene, coming in for glowing praise from Graeme Souness as he ‘ran the show’ in his country’s recent World Cup play-off win over Scotland.
Pep Guardiola has also gone on record to say that the 25-year-old’s best position is as an attacking midfielder ‘in the pockets’ so he could well be a Swiss-army knife of sorts for the Gunners and one worth trumping up the cash for.