ARSENAL WANT £40M FOR STRIKER ‘AVAILABLE IN SUMMER’ AS OWEN PICKS THREE ‘UPGRADES’ ON JESUS, HAVERTZ

Four Premier League clubs are interested in signing Arsenal benchwarmer Eddie Nketiah this summer, according to a report.

Nketiah has found minutes very hard to come by since the turn of the year, with Mikel Arteta preferring Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus in the No. 9 role.

Arsenal want £40m for Eddie Nketiah

The England international has never been the first-choice striker at the Emirates but Arteta has always had confidence in him to perform when the player ahead of him in the pecking order is unavailable, which has been quite often in Jesus’ case.

With Nketiah always a bit-part player for the Gunners, there has been a lot of speculation over his future in recent seasons.

The 24-year-old looked set to leave the club on a free transfer in 2022 before being convinced to stay by Arteta. The £100,000 weekly salary probably helped quite a bit as well.

Crystal Palace are a club who have been perpetually linked with Nketiah over the years but with several Premier League clubs in the market for a new striker this summer, they are not alone in seeking the Arsenal man’s signature.

According to HITC, the Gunners are ready to make Nketiah ‘available for transfer this summer’ with Bournemouth, West Ham, Fulham and Palace all in the picture.

The report claims that Arteta’s side ‘need’ to receive a whopping £40m for the player – who has only scored in four different matches this season.

Regardless, Arsenal are ‘holding out for more’ than the £34m they received from AS Monaco for Folarin Balogun last summer but are ‘ready to cash in’.

The £40m fee the Gunners are looking to receive would be a club-record fee paid for a player from Fulham, Palace and Bournemouth.

The Cherries will probably only go in for Nketiah if they sell Dominic Solanke – who has 17 Premier League goals this term – at the end of 2023/24.

Is Eddie Nketiah worth £40m? Join the discussion in the comments…

Owen: Watkins, Isak, Toney are ‘upgrades’ for Arsenal

Arsenal are prioritising the signing of a new striker and despite Solanke’s excellent form, he is not one of the three Premier League frontmen Michael Owen thinks would be an upgrade on the Gunners’ current No. 9 options.

Owen is a big fan of Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, who scored against Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.

Other players the former Ballon d’Or winner thinks would be well-suited to Arteta’s team are Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak and Brentford’s Ivan Toney.

“He [Watkins] is a player who is getting better and better year on year,” Owen told Premier League Productions. “He’s the type of player who could go into the Arsenal team, whether or not they can buy him is another thing.

“There are a lot of players in the Premier League at the moment who would probably be an upgrade on what Arsenal have right now.

“You’re looking at [Alexander] Isak up at Newcastle, maybe Ivan Toney at Brentford and Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa.”

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