Arsenal are the favourites to sign Arkadiusz Milik as his contract with Napoli closes in on its final year, according to reports in Italy.

A couple of Italian outlets are linking Arsenal with a move for Milik this week. Corriere dello Sport’s print edition (via TMW) claims Milik is up for auction, with four clubs in for him.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are the two from England joining Atletico and Juventus from abroad. CdS put a €50m price tag on the deal.

Writing for TMW, Niccolo Ceccarini adds: “The sale of Milik becomes more and more probable. Juventus could also be a hypothesis but at the moment there have been no contacts between the clubs.

“Easier to think of a solution abroad for the Polish centre-forward who has the contract expiring in June 2021. His new destination could be in England with Arsenal favourites.”

Arsenal obviously don’t have the money to splash €50m on a striker right now. But the only reason they’d need to sign one in the first place is if Alexandre Lacazette or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left.

Either departure should raise a fair bit of money. So it’s not entirely impossible, it would just require a lot of moving parts to come together.

As for whether Arsenal would want Milik, he’s coming off the back of a couple of good seasons with Napoli. He scored 20 in 2018/19 and was up to 12 in 22 appearances this campaign before the shutdown. One goal every 129 minutes.

The biggest negative is his injury record. The striker missed most of 2017/18 with a knee injury, and he missed nine games this season through three different fitness issues (groin injury, muscle injury, knee inflammation).

At 26, he still has his peak years ahead of him, but there’s also a good possibility the fitness issues only get worse with time. It’s a gamble at the price Napoli want for him.