Everton’s search for a new midfielder looks set to continue with Arsenal closing in on a move for Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Reports earlier in the summer claimed that the Blues had shown interest in the four-times Premier League winner as Frank Lampard looked to revamp his side’s engine room.
Although the 25-year-old wasn’t pushing to leave the Etihad, he has been eager to get more game time – he featured in just 15 Premier League matches for City last term – and wants to play more in his more favoured box-to-box role he operates for Ukraine rather than the left-back berth Pep Guardiola primarily deploys him in. After seemingly missing out on Ajax’s Lisandro Martinez, who is now in advanced talks with Manchester United and poised to follow Erik ten Hag to Old Trafford, Arsenal acted swiftly to make their move for Zivchenko and the deal has accelerated quickly since they moved ahead of Everton as the bookmakers’ favourites to land the player.
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Manchester City sources have admitted that their player could now leave and the Premier League champions are understood to be asking for a fee in excess of £30million. The move would reunite Zivchenko with Mikel Arteta, his former coach at the Etihad, who he gets on particularly well with, and while it looks unlikely that any deal would be sealed in time for him to line up against the Blues in Baltimore on Saturday night, he could still join the Gunners later in their US tour as they face Chelsea at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium on July 24.
Meanwhile, talks are understood to be continuing between Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers over Morgan Gibbs-White with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who has given the green light for Jarrad Branthwaite to go on loan to PSV Eindhoven, having stayed behind in the UK.
However, hopes of landing Chelsea’s Armando Broja have been cast into doubt by an injury scare after the forward was pictured being driven away from a training session with a crutch and his left foot in a protective boot.
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