Arsenal are reportedly ready to offer £40m for Everton Soares according to a report from Brazil that claims Napoli are also interested but the Italians are ‘second choice’ to Arsenal.

Chilean Universidad Catolica Juan Cornejo (L) vies for the ball with Brazil's Gremio footballer Everton Soares (R) during a Copa Libertadores football match at the San Carlos de Apoquindo Stadium in Santiago, on April 04, 2019. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)
Chilean Universidad Catolica Juan Cornejo (L) vies for the ball with Brazil’s Gremio footballer Everton Soares (R) during a Copa Libertadores football match at the San Carlos de Apoquindo Stadium in Santiago, on April 04, 2019. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)

The Arsenal links with Everton Soares have been weird. Although the story has been hammered hard in the media, Arsenal have reportedly denied they are even interested in the player but those denials have largely been ignored.

Still the links persist.

With the club about to splash £72m on a right winger in Nicolas Pepe, you do have to wonder how they could afford a €40m bid for a left winger in Soares but that’s what the media in Brazil report Gremio expect.

Lance in Brazil write, “Now, the latest information provided by the portal UOL Esporte is that Arsenal intends to offer Gremio a proposal that would be at the level expected by the gaucho club: 40 million euros ($ 168.7 million).

“Besides the English, who also intends to make an investment with this amount is Napoli, from Italy. However, the Old South Boot club is now more of a “second choice” if the deal with the London team is unsuccessful.”

They also report Gremio’s vice president, Duda Kroeff saying, “Every day we have some sign that some proposal will come.

“But so far we have none. The director doesn’t have much work with him (Everton). He is a player and an excellent boy. A wonderful person. And the manager has been behaving very well.

“He is calm. Like every player, he has a dream of playing in Europe, but he is always willing and very fond of wearing the Grêmio shirt. In no hurry to leave.”

Any deal seems complicated by Soares’ ownership. His club only own 50% of him with 30% in the hands of ‘businessman and former player’ Gimar Veloz as his manager. A further 10% is owned by Celso Riog, another ‘businessman’ while the remaining 10% is owned by Fortaleza, one of Soares’s previous clubs.

Are Arsenal in for him? Media reports would have you believe they are but that means little if this window has taught us anything.

As we said when the Arsenal denials first came to light, it does seem as if his club are pushing a move to Europe in the hope of landing a lot of cash. This is not the first time someone at Gremio has stressed Everton’s desire to play in Europe.

What that means for Arsenal’s alleged interest remains to be seen.

Thankfully, there isn’t long left in the window for us to find out one way or the other.