Arsenal are planning to offer Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers and Mohamed Elneny to Crystal Palace, in the hope that one of them will tempt Palace to agree a deal for Wilfried Zaha.

calum chambers fulham
via Fulham FC

The Mirror write that in an attempt to bridge the gap between Arsenal’s £40m opening bid for Zaha and Palace’s £80m valuation, the Gunners are willing to include one of Jenkinson, Chambers and Elneny in a partial swap deal.

Goal make the same claim about the three possible players involved, adding that Arsenal will make another offer soon to try and bring Palace back to the negotiating table.

In general, stories about player swap deals aren’t the most reliable. It very rarely happens that two clubs want a player from the other, and both players involved actually want to join the proposed club.

In this case, the story is a little more believable. Jenkinson, Elneny and Chambers have all seen their importance at Arsenal waning recently, so they’ll know they can get more regular football with Palace.

Arsenal and Zaha won’t cause problems, so it’s just whether Palace actually want to sign one of the three. The Eagles have bid for Chambers before, whilst both the Mirror and Goal claim Palace have an interest in Jenkinson, so those two seem the most likely.