Arsenal are seemingly out of the race to sign Eberechi Eze, with only Tottenham Hotspur still pursuing the Crystal Palace man at this stage.
David Ornstein reports for The Athletic that Tottenham Hotspur are now in a one-horse race for Eberechi Eze, suggesting Arsenal are no longer in contention to sign the Crystal Palace player.
Though Spurs are yet to reach an agreement for Eze’s transfer, talks are continuing and there’s a “good chance” the move goes ahead.
Ornstein told NBC Sports at the weekend that Arsenal’s pursuit of Eze was linked to the potential departure of Ethan Nwaneri.
With Nwaneri choosing to stay, the Gunners were unlikely to move for Eze unless the price came down. Ornstein added: “It’s not going to.”
Fabrizio Romano had broken the news on Monday that Spurs and Palace chairmans Daniel Levy and Steve Parish were in direct talks over Eze that day.
Eze had already informed Palace of his desire to move, with Spurs reportedly willing to offer a fixed fee of £55m with £5m in add-ons, below the player’s release clause of £60m plus £8m in add-ons.
That release clause has expired anyway, so Spurs’ only option is to negotiate a deal with Palace. But the expectation has always been that Palace would want a fee in the region of the clause even after its expiry, perhaps explaining why Monday’s talks haven’t yet led to a successful conclusion.
Arsenal had been linked with Eze throughout the summer window, but the Gunners don’t seem to have taken any steps to formalise that interest.
For Palace’s part, Ornstein reports that they’ve started to make moves for potential replacements, approaching Club Brugge over Christos Tzolis and Leicester City over Bilal El Khannouss.