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Arsenal in talks to sign South American star, £14m contract has been offered – report

By on August 12, 2021

According to Eurosport, Arsenal are in negotiations over a potential deal to sign £60m-rated striker Lautaro Martinez and have offered the Inter Milan star a contract worth over £14m per season.

Arsenal are scouring the market for a new goalkeeper and an attacking midfielder but we’re also reportedly looking to bring in another striker before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.

Tammy Abraham has been strongly linked in recent weeks but with Roma seemingly closing in on a deal for the Chelsea hitman, Arsenal are looking at alternatives and Martinez has emerged as a shock target.

Journalist Pete O’Rourke claimed recently that Arsenal are ‘really serious’ about signing the South American and were trying to work on a deal that could involve Hector Bellerin heading to Italy.

We were then dealt a major blow in our pursuit as Tottenham appeared to move into pole position to sign Martinez with The Times claiming on Monday that Spurs had agreed a £60m deal with Inter Milan.

However, their move is far from a ‘done deal’ as they don’t have an agreement with the player and it looks like Arsenal are still well in the hunt as according to Eurosport, we remain ‘very keen’ on signing the Argentinean hitman this summer.

The report says that while no formal offer has been made to Inter Milan, Arsenal have held talks about personal terms and have offered to pay Martinez around £275,000-a-week [£14.3m-a-year] if he moves to the Emirates Stadium.

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

That would almost triple Martinez’s current wages so he’d surely be tempted by a move to Arsenal, the key now is to agree a deal with Inter Milan but that’s not going to be easy.

Firstly, the Italians are reluctant to sell and Eurosport says Inter are determined to hang on to Martinez after agreeing to sell Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea. The Serie A champions clearly don’t want to lose both their key strikers, despite their financial woes.

Secondly, Arsenal will need to offload at least one current striker if we’re to afford Martinez [on top of a new goalkeeper and No.10]. Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette may both have to be sold if we’re to raise enough money to sign the Inter striker and there are limited buyers in this market.

So there is still a long way to go before any deal for Martinez can be done. The 23-year-old would be a sensational signing if we could somehow pull it off but I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.

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