Arsenal report: £50m star wanted by London rivals in surprise bid – which could suit Gunners perfectly
Arsenal could be about to part with a £50 million player – potentially selling to another London club – in order to generate a cash injection for the final weeks of the window. The Gunners have spent £200m this summer on the likes of , Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and , the latter of which is only a loan with an option to buy next summer permanently. With Financial Fair Play to consider, manager Mikel Arteta has earmarked players for sale for a number of weeks and had begun to trim his squad, happy with the improvements that he had made. But Timber has put a spanner into those plans, after picking up an ACL injury in opening Premier League match against . Now, the need to offload deadwood may accelerate as Arteta looks for a replacement for the Dutchman during his lengthy layoff. According to the , are considering moving for Arsenal's £50m-rated Folarin Balogun, with Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic set to leave for in Saudi Arabia. The Whites have managed to bring in Raul Jimenez from and secured a win in their game week 1 fixture against without Mitrovic from the start. Should they receive a generous figure for the 28-year-old – who fired an unbelievable 43 goals in 44 games during Fulham's promotion campaign of 2021/22 before netting a further 14 in 24 last term – they could be persuaded to buy Balogun. United States international Balogun managed 21 Ligue 1 goals on loan at Will Still's last term and in Arsenal's bid to find him a new permanent club, the north Londoners have struggled to find a suitor who matches their valuation. Italian journalist confirmed that pulled out of the race for the forward when a €35m bid was rejected. Fulham might not have to pay £50m, either. With Arsenal looking unlikely to get that figure, the Cottagers might find that £35m-£40m is enough – and with Fulham able to sign goalkeeper for relatively cheap with add-ons depending on Premier League status, they could well broker a similar deal on a bigger scale. Arsenal are also believed to be open to sales for Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding and Nicolas Pepe before returning into the market to secure a replacement for Timber. values Balogun at €30m.