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French Ligue 1 giants Marseille have submitted a new proposal to Arsenal in their attempts to sign Eddie Nketiah.
Marseille tabled their opening offer in early July but it was significantly below the Gunners’ valuation of Nketiah.
Given his years of Premier League experience, Nketiah has seen his asking price set at a staggering £50million.
Aside Marseille, Crystal Palace and Wolves have been linked to the 25-year-old but it is Roberto De Zerbi’s side pushing the most with a new bid sent to Arsenal.
According to David Ornstein of the Athletic (via football.london) near £16.8million (€20m) is the value of Marseille’s second offer for Nketiah.
While it is still some way off the reported valuation, it is much closer to the formula Arsenal want with talks expected to continue.
Arsenal have already sealed a marquee departure for an academy graduate with Emile Smith Rowe set to join Fulham in a deal worth up to £35million, as football.london understands. The 24-year-old has since left Arsenal’s pre-season camp in the United States and completed his medical with the Cottagers.
While there is still some work to be done regarding Nketiah, a key agreement has already been reached with the striker accepting the move to France having agreed on a five-year contract as he is keen to join up with De Zerbi’s team.
Despite that, Nketiah has continued featuring in pre-season for Arsenal with 82 minutes played across the last two friendlies with the striker perhaps taking on his own advice.
“Pre-season is really good for a lot of the lads who haven’t trained or played with us that much to show what they can do,” he told the club’s official website.
