Olympique Marseille is serious about beating Arsenal to the signature of Brazilian playmaker, Philippe Coutinho.
The former Liverpool star has been struggling for relevance since he moved to Spain in 2018 and selling him this summer would help Barcelona save some money in wages.
Arsenal has admired him since Mikel Arteta became their manager as the Spaniard looks for an attacking midfielder to build his team around.
He remains a target after they missed out on signing Martin Odegaard on a permanent transfer.
The Gunners will now attempt to get a replacement for the Norwegian who spent the second half of last season on loan with them.
Coutinho can provide the playmaking that Arsenal needs, but they could lose him to Marseille with L’Equipe via Todofichajes reporting that they are so keen on him that they have found a sponsor to help them share the payments regarding his transfer.
The report says talks are now making rapid progress and the midfielder is expected to complete the move to the Ligue 1 side very soon.
If he joins them, it would be a blow to Arsenal unless they aren’t that keen on him because it would show that they remain an unattractive proposition when teams like Marseille beats them to transfer targets.