Report: 'Everyone' believes Arsenal are going to sign 'great' player, they're willing to pay £40m

By Sam Preston

Arsenal are willing to pay £40m for Gabriel Jesus this summer, but Manchester City are holding out for closer to £60m.

Writing in his weekly Reading The Game column for The Independent, Miguel Delaney believes that there is a consensus that the deal will get done regardless.

Jesus is going towards the final year of his current City contract, which means the valuation from the Etihad Stadium may prove ambitious.

Even £40 million would be a lot for a player with a dwindling current deal, but it is probably cheaper than it would take to get a player of Jesus’s quality and Premier League quality otherwise.

Arsenal willing to pay £40 million for Jesus

Delaney’s update on the situation reads: “City are hoping for £60 million for Gabriel Jesus. Arsenal want it closer to £40 million.

“No one thinks it will cause the deal to collapse – in fact, quite the opposite, in that everyone believes it’s ‘done’ – but there may yet be some negotiations.

“City are once again willing to offload a number of players, just as they were last summer, and Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling are again players who they would at least be prepared to listen to offers for.

“It is where the talk of Tottenham’s interest in Sterling has come from. If the England star were to move, he would prefer Spain.”

Fellow journalist David Ornstein said earlier today that Jesus is right at the top of Arsenal’s shopping list for the summer transfer window.

Why Arsenal willing to pay £40 million for Jesus, despite his contract situation? They could sit tight by they need firepower this summer and there will be competition for his signature.

If Jesus is the man to transform the Gunners’ attack, that fee will look relatively cheap in the end.

Bernardo Silva has hailed his teammate as a ‘great’ player amid recent good form and he can play in a variety of positions and is only going to keep on getting better.