Arsenal, Olympique Marseille and AC Milan are all interested in signing Oguzhan Özyakup in January, and the Gunners will win whether they sign him or not.

According to reports from Turkey (via TribalFootball.com), Arsenal are considering a £9.7m deal for the 25-year-old midfielder, who played in the Gunners’ academy between 2008 and 2012. Marseille and Milan are both also interested, and Özyakup hasn’t given anything away when it comes to where he’ll be playing next season.

As we’ve covered in the last few weeks, Arsenal will collect 30% from any sale in January, thanks to a sell-on clause the Gunners put in Özyakup’s contract when he made his move from North London to Turkey in the first place. So Milan or Marseille outbidding the Gunners would add more money to the club’s transfer budget.

On the other hand, if Milan and Marseille aren’t willing to outbid Arsenal, the North London club can pick up the midfielder for this low fee of £9.7m. Özyakup has been one of Besiktas’ star players in recent seasons, and even transfermarkt.co.uk give his value as £10.8m.

Transfermarkt tend to give conservative estimates of player value, for example Alexandre Lacazette was valued at £36m when he was sold to Arsenal for £46m. So £9.7m for Özyakup looks like a good deal.

If Besiktas are unwilling to sell for that price, there’s a third option. Özyakup’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season, so the Gunners (or anyone else) could sign a pre-contract agreement with the player in January.

The worst case scenario is that the Turkish international remains with his current club, runs down his contract, and signs a new one in the summer.

Arsenal wouldn’t receive any financial compensation if that happened, and Özyakup could be sold for a big fee in the future without Besiktas having to pass any money on. So the Gunners would be wise to try and force Besiktas’ hand in January.