Malick Fofana to Arsenal transfer truth as Andrea Berta races to complete four deals
Malick Fofana could be an Arsenal player before the deadline(Image: Getty Images)
Arsenal are weighing up a move for Malick Fofana after the Lyon winger was offered to the club, football.london understands. The Gunners are intent on adding another attacker to support Christos Tzolis, with the aim of avoiding Eberechi Eze becoming the obvious fallback option should they fail to land Fofana.
The Gunners have already agreed exits for Gabriel Martinelli who is set to join Al Hilal in a deal worth around £60million, Gabriel Jesus, who will move to Barcelona for £8.6m plus £4.3m in add‑ons, and Fabio Vieira, who is heading to Hamburger SV in a £7.7m transfer.
A winger signing such as Fofana would be the fourth deal for Andrea Berta to wrap up before Tuesday's 11pm deadline. The Belgian has been offered to the Gunners.
Lyon's position is thought to have been weakened slightly by their failure to qualify for this season's Champions League. They were beaten 3-2 on aggregate by Turkish giants Fenerbahce in the final qualifying round.
football.london understands Lyon are holding out for a fee in the region of €40m (£34m) including add‑ons. Arsenal remain in contact with the 21‑year‑old's camp.
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However, if a deal fails to materialise before deadline day, not securing a left winger to support Tzolis and replace the two departing wide men - Martinelli and Jesus, will undoubtedly be viewed as a failure. Berta is already facing scrutiny for the club's inability, so far, to identify and deliver a clear upgrade in the wide‑left role.
Bradley Barcola was admired by Arsenal, but a fee north of £120m was never of interest. Jeremy Monga was another player they rated highly and made offers for, yet they were unwilling to match the asking price - something Manchester City were prepared to do.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has reiterated that Arsenal remain committed to a self‑sustaining model, but stressed that this does not mean sanctioning sales that are not in the club's best interests.
"That's what we are trying to get as a club but the balance has to be right," Arteta said. "There are areas that we have to improve to hit those numbers. And if it's not with sales, because maybe we don't want.
"We have to sell what we want to sell as well, not just to sell. And then when we want to sell as well, we have to be very careful because some of the assets, after maybe they grow and we still want them.
"So maybe we can grow in other areas across the club as well. And commercially, we've done incredible. The fan base that we have is incredible. Our mass revenue is incredible. And there are other ways to grow and that’s the club's strategy.
"But we want to improve in all of them, obviously, because it's going to give us a bigger room to be stronger financially."
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