It has now been confirmed by SkySports and David Ornstein that Arsenal have made a £40 Million bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha.
That is all well and good but everyone and his uncle knows that the Eagles will dismiss such a bid out fo hand.
They have already made it clear that they value the Ivory Coast international at twice that amount and if anything, will feel that Arsenal is being disruptive with such a low bid.
It is now common knowledge that Zaha wants to join Arsenal and is agitating for a move, by tabling a bid Arsenal know full well this will make the situation at Selhurst Park a lot worse.
But it will make no difference at all, Palace simply will not sell at that amount and neither will they give into Zaha’s demands.
But there is a solution and that is if Arsenal chuck in one or two players, then Palace may deal.
Arsenal have quite a few players that are basically surplus to requirements, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi and even Granit Xhaka and Alex Iwobi could be considered.
Arsenal could even offer to subsidise some of Mkhitaryan wages to make a cash plus player deal more palatable.
There are of course other players that can be thrown in, even some youngsters.
Arsenal will know that Palace will reject this opening offer and will be gearing up to make a second bid and it will be at that point that they will have to be creative.
This one will run and run and will become a transfer saga, that you can take to the bank.