In early talks over Eberechi Eze, Crystal Palace have informed Arsenal that they want a fee of up to £67.5m with £35m upfront, according to reports.
Football insider HandofArsenal broke the news on Wednesday that Arsenal and Crystal Palace have held talks over Eberechi Eze, with the south London club asking for approximately £30m as the upfront payment for a deal.
Ed Aarons of The Guardian confirms that initial talks have taken place, with Palace indicating they want £35m upfront and a total fee of £67.5m including bonuses.
Eze has a release clause of £60m with another £7.5m in add-ons, and Palace are unwilling to accept any less than that amount. That may be in part because QPR are due 15% of the profit through a sell-on clause.
Palace bought Eze for a fee of up to £19.5m, so 15% of the profit on a £67.5m sale would come to around £7m.
Aarons adds that Arsenal officials met with Eze’s camp last month to discuss personal terms, and he’s thought to be keen on a return to the club of his childhood. The midfielder represented the Arsenal academy in his early youth days, before being released at 13.
HandofArsenal, Ed Aarons, and Tom Canton of Football.London all report that Eze’s £67.5m release clause has an expiry date, with Aarons and Canton reporting that it will expire before the start of the Premier League season on August 16th.
Having said that, the three sources also agree that the expiry of the clause wouldn’t change Palace’s valuation of the player. They want the same £67.5m package either way.
Canton adds in his report that Eze is believed to have prioritised Arsenal over other options this summer, and a potential deal is believed to be separate to the potential exit of either Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli.
On the other hand, Arsenal will want to free up some space on the wage bill if Eze joins, and the likes of Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Reiss Nelson, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Karl Hein could make way to aid that cause. Paying £35m upfront will also probably require a sale or two.
At least a couple of players need to leave for Arsenal to fit within the squad limits anyway, so there’s no doubt that the club need to work on outgoings.