EXCLUSIVE: Crystal Palace's Eddie Nketiah offer revealed

Steve Kay

• Updated: 10 Jan 2024 13:37 GMT
• 3 min read

Exclusive

Crystal Palace attempted to sign Eddie Nketiah on loan this month, with an obligation to buy in the summer, FootballTransfers has learned.

Towards the end of 2023, FootballTransfers exclusively revealed that Palace had moved to sign the Arsenal backup striker and that the Gunners were open to letting him go in the right circumstances.

These circumstances would certainly have included Arsenal signing a replacement for Nketiah before offloading him.

However, we revealed that Arsenal had rejected a first offer from Crystal Palace.

Now, FootballTransfers has learned that Palace made a loan offer with an obligation to buy in the summer.

Arsenal are still not close to signing a striker this window so any possible sale of Nketiah is off the table for now.

The Gunners have shortlisted a number of top strikers, including Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus, Victor Osimhen of Napoli, and Ivan Toney of Brentford. All three players will be very difficult to sign in January.

However, Arsenal are not ruling out the possibility that someone could still arrive late in the window.

For that to happen, though, Arsenal need to offload players in order to raise funds and lower the wage bill.

Nketiah himself earns around £100,000 a week, which is considered too much for a third choice striker.

Nketiah at Arsenal

The 24-year-old Nketiah has been Arsenal since joining as a youth player from Chelsea in 2015.

He made his debut in the 2017-18 season and in total has made 157 appearances, scoring 38 goals.

However, Nketiah has failed to be prolific enough to suggest that he can be a first-choice option for Mikel Arteta’s men.

He has never scored more than five goals in a Premier League season, although he did hit 10 in all competitions during the 2021-22 campaign.

The number 9 position has been a problem area for Arsenal over the last 18 months, with first-choice option Gabriel Jesus also struggling to hit the back of the net with enough regularity.

Arsenal are in a period of bad form, having won just once in their last seven matches in all competitions.

This has seen them slip off the top of the table down to fourth place.