Arsenal have reportedly been given the green light to sign Sevilla midfielder Steven N’Zonzi but there seems to be one major roadblock.
N’Zonzi has spent a significant amount of time in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City, eventually moving to Spain to join Sevilla in 2015 for a fee around the region of £7 million.
And ever since moving to the La Liga, the 29-year-old has turned himself into one of the more influential figures at the club.
The Gunners interest in the defensive midfielder is also quite evident given the fact that N’Zonzi has already worked with Unai Emery when the Arsenal boss was in charge at Sevilla.
According to the latest reports, Sevilla are willing to let go of their midfielder but the comments from their director of football Joaquin Caparros last caused some serious problems at the London club.
Steven Nzonzi is a Champion of the World!!!
We are so proud of you @iamnzonzi15! Congratulations! 🇫🇷#WorldCupFinal pic.twitter.com/LVkc690p5m
— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) July 15, 2018
Caparros said: “We have not received any offers for him and I will say the same to any clubs who may be interested as what we said with [Clement] Lenglet – he has a buy-out clause and it’s €40m.”
Sevilla will sell Steven N’Zonzi to the right buyer for a fee of around £36 million but Unai Emery might just struggle to gather that much of cash.
When Emery was appointed as the new Arsenal manager he was reportedly given a £70 million transfer budget and the manager has already exhausted a large chunk of that in signing players like Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Matteo Guendouzi and Stephan Lichtsteiner.
So now if the Gunners boss really wants to sign Steven N’Zonzi then he will have to raise the required £36 million by selling some players from his current squad.
Arsenal already have a number of players up for sale but they will have to collect the cash before the Premier League transfer window closes on the 9th of August after which the EPL clubs can only sell players but not bring in reinforcements.
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