Crystal Palace are yet to spend much of the Michael Olise money on attacking reinforcements.
The £50.8m received from Bayern Munich has been partially reinvested in the £12.7m signing of Ismaila Sarr – with Chadi Riad arriving for £14m before the France U23 international left, while Daichi Kamada was free.
Now – however – Dougie Freedman has moved to bring a Premier League striker to Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace approach the final two weeks of the summer transfer window…
Crystal Palace make approach to sign Arsenal No.14 Eddie Nketiah
A story from Sky Sports now reveals that Crystal Palace have enquired about Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah.
This information has been backed up by Football London – who add that Bournemouth are also keen to sign the England international after losing Dominic Solanke to Tottenham.
However, Sky Sports specifically mention that Bournemouth have turned their attention towards Porto No.30 Evanilson – so Crystal Palace seemingly have a clear run at signing Nketiah.
Football London believe the 25-year-old has now decided he must leave Arsenal after falling behind Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard in the pecking order, competition which has resulted in Mikel Arteta not starting the Lewisham-born striker in any competitions since December.
Nketiah – who has 19 goals in 116 Premier League appearances – has three years remaining on his contract at the Emirates Stadium, and was close to joining Marseille in a £26m deal this summer before the French giants signed Elye Wahi instead.
England international could replace Jordan Ayew
It remains to be seen whether Arsenal will charge us a £26m fee like they did with Marseille, although a small portion of this sum looks set to be made up by the sale of Jordan Ayew to Leicester.
A story from Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail states that Leicester have offered £4m for Ayew – and the bid is close to what Crystal Palace will accept for the Ghana international, who is now 32 years of age.
It will be sad to see the Crystal Palace No.9 leave after 211 appearances in red and blue, where he has become a real fan favourite thanks to his tireless work rate and tremendous attitude.
However, in terms of freshening up the squad, it would be great work from Freedman to replace Ayew with a homegrown talent who is also seven years younger.
READ MORE: What Crystal Palace have now told others about Mateta as he returns to training
Be sure to keep an eye on this situation, as Crystal Palace could finally sign Nketiah this summer – Football London believe approaches have been made by Freedman for several years now.
