Arsenal offer £13m, plus Mkhitaryan in swap for exciting Roma attacker
Arsenal could sign Roma attacker Justin Kluivert during this summer’s transfer window with Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving in the opposite direction, according to a report.
Mkhitaryan, 31, has spent the entire season on loan with Roma and has reportedly signalled his intentions to remain with the Rome club.
Roma paid a €3million loan fee for the player and the Armenian paid that back with six goals and three assists in 13 league appearances and now he apparently wants to stay.
“Since the first day when I arrived in Rome, I really liked it here, I got on well with the team. Everything was fantastic. Of course it would be nice to stay here,” Mkhitaryan is quoted by Italian media, as cited by Bild.
And that could be music to the ears of Arsenal with Corriere dello Sport reporting a swap deal involving Kluivert could be on the cards.
The Italian source claim that Mikel Arteta’s team would pay £13million and Mkhitaryan, who was a straight swap for Alexis Sanchez, in order to bring the exciting 21-year-old winger to The Emirates.
The 19-year-old, who was also believed to be a summer target for Manchester United and Liverpool in 2018, almost moved to Spurs two years ago.
Tottenham wanted to take Kluivert to the Premier League in 2019 and asked about a potential deal whilst negotiating for Davinson Sanchez .
The Eredivise club told Dutch newspaper Volkskrant: “Spurs’ proposal was that Kluivert would play in Amsterdam for another two years and that he would then go to Spurs. We did not go further on that, because we wanted to renew Justin’s contract.”
On 12 June 2018, Kluivert did in fact leave Ajax and he signed for Roma for €18.75million.