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Arsenal eyeing late swoop to sign £60m star despite splashing £72m on Pepe

By on August 1, 2019

According to a shock report by iNews, Arsenal are still interested in signing Wilfried Zaha before the window closes despite splashing out £72m on Nicolas Pepe today.

Arsenal announced on Arsenal.com this afternoon that Pepe has joined the club from Lille on a long-term contract after we beat-off competition from several other top European clubs for his signature.

Unai Emery wanted to add a winger to his squad and it was assumed he had turned his attention to signing Pepe after we struggled to agree a fee with Crystal Palace over a deal to sign Wilfried Zaha last month.

We saw a £40m offer rejected by the Eagles and many media outlets at the time claimed they were demanding around £80m for the 26-year-old so it looked like our interest ended once we’d snapped up Pepe in a club record deal.

However, not according to iNews journalist Sam Cunningham, as he claims Arsenal are still keen to sign Zaha despite the arrival of Pepe and he says we’re eyeing a late move to sign the Palace attacker.

The report says Arsenal are hoping to agree a deal that represents ‘good value’ before the window closes on August 8th and it’s suggested that Palace have now lowered their valuation to £60m.

Everton have already seen a £55m bid knocked back for Zaha but the Ivorian’s preference is to remain in London and his brother has already confirmed the player wants to play for Arsenal.

Zaha has added fuel to the fire after ‘liking’ an Instagram post announcing Pepe’s move to Arsenal. It’s worth remembering that Zaha and Pepe both play for the Ivory Coast so perhaps he was just expressing his delight at his compatriot securing a big money move.

However, why would Zaha ‘like’ Pepe joining Arsenal if it ended his hopes of securing his ‘dream’ move to the Emirates? Maybe he was liking the post as he knows he may join his Ivorian team mate in north London soon?

It’s all very intriguing but I have no idea how Arsenal would afford Zaha AND Pepe without selling either Lacazette or Aubameyang. There is an argument to suggest Arsenal would be more balanced with Zaha and Pepe either side of Lacazette or Aubameyang in attack as neither of our current strikers are that comfortable out wide.

However, I’d be gutted to see Auba or Laca leave this summer as they’ve struck up an excellent partnership and I’m excited to see how Pepe will play alongside them. So let’s hope if we do make a late move to sign Zaha it’s because Stan has finally loosened the purse-strings and it’s not funded by the sale of one of our strikers.