Palermo’s president has claimed he’s received a €40m bid for Paulo Dybala, but who from?

That is the mystery.

A player who has been linked heavily with Arsenal (amongst others) over the past few months, Dybala, 21 is widely expected to move from the Serie A side this summer.

A forward who has been called the new ‘Sergio Aguero’ (they’re always the new someone), his club are refusing to confirm or deny which club has tabled the offer for the forward.

Paulo Dybala of Palermo celebrates after scoring the equalizing goal
PALERMO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 01: Paulo Dybala of Palermo celebrates after scoring the equalizing goal during the Serie A match between US Citta di Palermo and Hellas Verona FC at Stadio Renzo Barbera on February 1, 2015 in Palermo, Italy. (Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)

So is it Arsenal?

Well, it could be.

Just a few years ago we could have dismissed this sort of speculation on the basis of the fee alone – Arsenal don’t pay that sort of money for players.

Then we spent over £40m on Mesut Ozil and followed that up with Alexis Sanchez who cost in excess of £30m.

He’s also young enough to be someone Wenger is likely to be interested in, but could they really spend that sort of money on a player to replace Lukas Podolski or Joel Campbell, neither of whom seem to have a future at the club?

It does seem unlikely that Arsenal will be adding another forward to their ranks this summer given that they have Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez with Yaya Sanogo to return from his loan and Chuba Akpom also looking for minutes. You would have to think that if one more was to come in, another would have to leave.

Although two are most likely already set to leave, Poldi and Campbell both played wide (when they actually played) and in Danny Welbeck, Alexis, the Ox and Theo, Arsenal have a host of players for that position as well, and that’s without even mentioning Serge Gnabry or Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla who’ve also been shunted out on to the wings.

Having said all that, the media in Italy think the clues point to it being Arsenal who are indeed the club who have made the bid. The player himself, when asked about Arsenal’s interest when a bid was incorrectly reported at the end of last year said

“Whenever people speak well of me, I’m filled with pride. I will not deny that going to Arsenal and playing in the Premier League would be amazing. However, I am aware that my reality right now is Palermo.”

Whatever the truth, Palermo’s president, Maurizio Zamperini, has said the deal could be sorted soon, so we may not have that long to wait to find out the truth.