Arsenal are making their fans wait for their first major signing of the summer.
While goalkeeper David Raya’s permanent deal from Brentford has been confirmed, the club have yet to bring in any new faces as they look to put the final few pieces of what they hope will be a 2024/25 title-winning jigsaw together this summer.
One player heavily linked with a move to the Emirates so far this summer has been Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori, with the club believed to have already agreed personal terms with the 22-year-old.
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The sticking point so far has been to agree a fee with Bologna over the transfer, with the club valuing him at around £42million. Arsenal jet out to America for their preseason tour on Sunday and would like to have a deal in place by then, and although time is slipping away, Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio insists a deal will be done.
“At this moment, Arsenal’s priority is to find an agreement with Bologna for Riccardo Calafiori,” Di Marzio told goal.pl. “He’s their top target and they are pushing a lot. The player wants Arsenal and he decided to join them two-three weeks back. He didn’t listen to offers from Chelsea, PSG, Bayer Leverkusen because he’s really focused on Arsenal and Arsenal is focused on him.”
“At this moment there’s no deal yet with Bologna because the price of Calafiori has changed a lot. Before Euro 2024 he had a price of €30-35 million. After his performances for Italy, Bologna are asking for €50 million and Arsenal feel that’s too much. Arsenal are willing to spend €1-2 million more but not €10 million more.
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Riccardo Calafiori in action for Italy during Euro 2024 (Image credit: James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
“So at this moment, the pace of the deal is on standby but with the will to arrive at an agreement in the next few days. Another problem is when Bologna bought the player last year they agreed on a 50 percent sell-on clause with Basel and so now they are trying to get more money because they don’t want to sell Calafiori for only €20 million because €10 million of that they’ll have to give to Basel.
“They’re trying to get more possible money but at this moment, they can’t afford to keep the player so the move is only a matter of time.”
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