Arsenal plan to make a move for Eintracht Frankfurt’s 23-year-old striker Andre Silva as they look to offload Alexandre Lacazette this summer.
Lacazette has endured a tough time under manager Mikel Arteta but last season he made 31 Premier League appearances for Arsenal which made everyone think the Frenchman has won his boss’ confidence.
But according to journalist Duncan Castles, Arteta has no plans on holding onto the 30-year-old as he is keen to bring Andre Silva on board before the 2021/22 season kicks off.
Castles said on the Transfer Window Podcast: “Andre Silva scored 28 goals and made eight assists from 32 Bundesliga appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt last season. He almost got them into the Champions League but they just missed out on a place to Erling Haaland’s Dortmund team by one point.
“Silva is 25. He has been at a lot of top clubs in his career. He started at Porto, Milan and then Sevilla.
“For a big chunk of that time, he has been affected by a bad knee issue which took medical staff a time to solve. He wasn’t happy with his handling at Sevilla.
“He has now turned back into the striker that people expected him to be when he was at the young stage of his career at FC Porto. He is only under contract until 2023.
“Interestingly, he has been targeted by RB Leipzig, who are probably one of the best judges of talent in European football at present. They see him as an option to be the long-term replacement for Timo Werner. They are also looking at Patson Daka from RB Salzburg who has a lot of interest from the Premier League.
“Frankfurt are asking €40m for the player but there is an expectation that won’t be achieved and they’ll be forced to sell him for less money.
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“Leipzig don’t want to pay €40m for him. Arsenal have expressed an interest and done a lot of preparatory work on his deal. They have told Andre Silva they need to sell before they can bring him in.
“The player they want to sell is Alexandre Lacazette…. I’m told Silva’s preference is to move to England rather than stay in the Bundesliga.
“The difficulty for Arsenal is managing to sell their high-salary players for a reasonable price to raise the cash they want to refresh and change the team.”
Eintracht Frankfurt need to bring in money to sign new players so they are open to selling Andre Silva if a club is willing to meet their transfer demands.
€35-40 million should not be a problem for Arsenal, especially if they can get a decent enough fee from the sale of Lacazette. But, at the same time, it will be really hard for them to convince Silva to join them since they do not have European football to offer.
According to TransferMarkt, the 25-year-old scored 28 goals in 32 Bundesliga games during the 2020-21 season and he is currently valued at £40.5 million.
