According to talkSPORT, Everton are interested in signing Alex Iwobi before the transfer window closes on Thursday afternoon.
It’s said that the Toffees, who appear to be giving up their pursuit of Wilfried Zaha due to Crystal Palace’s demands (join the club!), could be willing to pay £30 million for the Nigerian midfielder.
The last time we saw Iwobi in an Arsenal shirt, he came off the bench in the Europa League to crash home a fantastic strike that briefly cut Chelsea’s lead.
Since then he’s been away on international duty where he helped his country to a third-place finish at the African Cup of Nations in Egypt.
BREAKING: Everton make £30million bid to sign attacker Alex Iwobi from Arsenal.
– talkSPORT sources understand.
Join us now for the transfer latest.
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— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 7, 2019
Iwobi has been on the books at Arsenal since he was at primary school and signed a new five-year deal at the Emirates in July 2018.
Last season, the 23-year-old played 51 times for Arsenal scoring six goals and making nine assists.
There have been no suggestions that Unai Emery is unhappy with the player’s output – few players featured more last campaign – but at the same time with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil proving difficult to shift and Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson ready to play wide roles, it’s not hard to see how he could be expendable. Also, £30 million would be very useful as we try and nail down defensive recruits.
We’re still pretty sceptical, mostly because this has come out of nowhere from a source that isn’t particularly reputable.
Update: We were wrong to be sceptical. Several sources are reporting that an initial bid of £30 million has been rejected by Arsenal. Everton are expected to up the ante in the coming hours.
As per others, Everton £30m bid for Alex Iwobi rejected. Made to Arsenal today & knocked back. Expected to return with improved offer but likely need £40m+ to be accepted. 23yo not agitating but would go if deal agreed. #EFC interest recent & is in addition to Wilfied Zaha #CPFC
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 7, 2019
Money for a new centre back! Younger prospects coming through. This is going to happen.
If we get 30-40 mil for Iwobi that will be GREAT business for us!!!
Arsene Wenger once said you don’t really master your job as a footballer until the age of 23/24. I feel like it would be a MASSIVE mistake for Arsenal to let Iwobi go at 23 just when he’s arriving at the age where he can show he has truly developed and now understands the game tactically mastered his role in the team and even go on to add goals and more end product to his game. Which I think he can, he scored a lot of goals as a youth player for arsenal even as a #10 where he played… Read more »
I’m with you on this Craig.. if we let Iwobi go, I have a very strong feeling we might come to regret it soon, because leaving Arsenal would give him that deep desire to prove all the naysayers wrong. Great for him but not for us fans – Gnabry comes to mind. If he can get the same sort of focus Raheem Sterling got from the city coaches to turn him into the beast he is today, I think he could become something else; even better than Sterling himself because he he has everything else Sterling has (plus dribbling with… Read more »
I agree with that Gnabry comparison. And actually it was because while Gnabry was injured iwobi was able to stake his claim in the senior team hence when Gnabry came back he found it difficult to see a path where he would play regularly because when he came back iwobi was already ahead of him. So I think Gnabry got a little impatient as well but yes I agree if we let iwobi go it would be very similar to that situation and I think we should just give him time and back him instead of criticizing him. We fans… Read more »
If it meant affording a top CB then….
Yep, I’d take the “reported” £30 million towards a centre back – don’t think it will happen though.
I’m truly torn here. My first reaction was yours. “Let’s get 40m out of Everton and throw it towards Upamecano for a player that is even more marginalized with the arrival of Pépé.” But then I started considering how young he is with how much potential and experience he has. That, linked with the fact he has learned from Wenger and has a chance to learn even more from Unai and it makes this a difficult decision. He’s also a good guy, which matters in the days of Icardi, Balotelli, and so on. You don’t want to give up a… Read more »
Let’s offer £20M + Iwobi for Keane and see what happens.
Should be at least the other way around
Have you seen Keane play for Everton? There’s always a mistake in him, he’s poor positionally and he’s easily turned
No this would be a poor bit of business. We desperately need technicians in the team. We bought Pepe because Iwobi was literally the only player willing and able to take a man on “make things happen”. He’s home grown an academy player and worth way more to the club than £40 mil.
Mhikitaryn is the player we should be shifting.
I’ll be annoyed if we let Iwobi go over Mkhitaryan, we need to keep some proper Arsenal lads in the first team squad!
Lodge a complaint with Everton.
I agree, but Iwobi is at least moveable with a salary that isn’t bonkers. Plus I feel like he’s never really delivered and we should cash in
Counter with 50, settle on 40 ish. Good business.
Nope. A very useful squad player at present who may still develop into much more than that.
we’ve been hearing about his ongoing development for 3-4 years now. maybe just accept that he is nothing more than a squad player. time to cash out
bring on the downvotes!
He’s fairly young, homegrown, reasonably talented, physically robust, good attitude, has a genuine connection to the club, isn’t on big wages, and improved significantly last year, with a view to continuing that.
Even if he never develops into anything more than a squad player, squads do need depth, and he’s exactly the sort of player we should be keeping around to provide that.
Mkhitaryan on the other hand is exactly the sort of squad player we should be shifting.
and iwobi actually HAS BEEN DEVELOPING. He is better each season…
Unfortunately no one wants to get shifted with a Mkitharyan…
Pepe was pretty average and far from clinical a couple of seasons ago. Now we’re acting as if we’ve signed the new Messi but at the same time say that Iwobi wont become a better player in the future. Arsenal fans are quiet funny sometimes, but in a bad way.
Would just add that we are not the only ones.
I dont disagree, but on the other hand what the team needs now to progress is quality in defence.
I think it’s easier to develop in a team like Lille rather than Arsenal. In a team like Arsenal there is huge pressure and if you dont perform you are out in a split second.
We’ve clearly been supporting different teams over the last 10 years or so!
I’d be sad to see him leave but Pepe is an upgrade and we need defenders
Also we have lots of potential coming through the youth ranks
Pepe will be our right wing / forward. Iwobi meanwhile can do a job on the left or even centrally in midfield. He’s relatively young, and had a good showing at the AFCON where he seems to be able to carry his team – a bad time to let him go in my opinion, unless for crazy money. As someone said above, it’s best to move Mikhi on instead.
For all we know we take the money and pay dividends to the f*@#ing Kroenkes
Wasn’t Iwobi’s first Arsenal goal against Everton? Nice little run half the length of the pitch down the right and a good strong finish if I remember correctly.
Question is if it goes through will Arsenal bolster the CB funds or use it to pay the rumoured Coutinho loan fee? Interesting two days ahead. Whichever the outcome we get upgraded somewhere on the pitch.
After the failed pursuit of zaha this proves Everton is desperate for a winger. Ask for 45 million get in between 35-40 million. And let’s be ruthless now and get Upamecano from all the incoming money from sales and not sacrifice young talents like Emile Smith Rowe in part exchange deals without giving them chance at arsenal.
Yeah, Scott who does By The Numbers did a stats comparison of Alex Iwobi and Zaha and Alex came out on top in many categories, with Zaha ahead in completed dribbles and end product. So you can see Everton’s logic here.
Says a lot about his quality that this is the biggest bid we’ve had for one of our players this summer. Don’t mind sacrificing him to upgrade the squad, but it’s disgusting that Mustafi and Mkhitaryan might still be at the club while guys who bleed Arsenal like Jenko and Alex leave.
Here’s a link to Scott Willis’ stats comparison of Iwobi/Zaha (Iwobi’s the red dot)
https://twitter.com/oh_that_crab/status/1144671950431608832
I like the guy but needs must and 30 million is a substantial windfall at the moment while we have Nelson and Pepe available for a similar role.
The only forward who can defend.
Yeah, but he is weak at attacking.
You obviously haven’t watched Lacazette and Aubameyang who also do a great deal of defending
He really isn.t very good at defending..that is one of my gripes with him actually.
Feel fairly neutral about this one
Definitely a pile of you know what (the rumor). 30 million for him would be great business, but don’t see Everton coming out of the blue with that amount for him. He is a solid contributor for Arsenal, but definitely is one that can be replaced more easily than others.
Ornstein just confirmed the bid so it looks like there’s some substance to this
You don’t handle their transfer realities
iwobi would have been worth 60 million if only he didnt shit his pants in the final 3rd.
I’d rather we got rid of Mkhitaryan + Ozil.
Iwobi improved last season, and started regularly getting into goal scoring positions, if he just adds a bit of composure? That sometimes comes with age… then he’ll become a very important squad player.
For us to sell in this market? Iwobi has to be worth £35-£40 million, with a guarantee we’d use the funds on a quality centre half
But no bugger wants Mkhitaryan or Ozil. Can we really do these deals in 24 hours or so.?
Perhaps, if they’re desperate enough, we could do a deal on Mkhitaryan instead. I’d rather keep the homegrown Iwobi
Christ — if the guy could shoot he’d be £70m+
And we won’t need to buy Nicolas Pepe
As much as Iwobi frustrates me ( just stick you laces through the damn ball instead of trying to always side foot it into the net ) I would not let him go.
Plus we know Everton would likely pay in installments, so its not like we would get 30mil in cash up front to help fund that coveted CB we need.
Thanks but no…
30 millions a good amount of money for him, especially as we have younger players coming through that could replace him
Six goals, nine assists and homegrown player, that means at least 40M…
In Raul we trust xD
This time last season fans were offering to drive him to places for free to get rid. 30m in the bag, go and get a CB. Simples.
Iwobi’s market value far exceeds 30m. If he must go, we should hold out for 50m.
Bring back the Jeff!
But Le Jeff has the same end product issue as Iwobi. Last year at Angers was apparently his breakout season, and in 35 games he had 3 goals and 3 assists
Yeah I love Iwobi but there’s no question in my mind that Saka and Reiss look to have higher ceilings than Iwobi. While he developed quite a bit last season, I can’t help but think he doesn’t have the end product to start at Arsenal anymore.
Didn’t he score his first goal for us against Everton? Maybe they think he can shoot!
Amazingly talkSHITE is telling the truth
I, personally, would like to give him one more season at the club. He is continually improving and could potentially have a great season this time around. If he doesn’t, he would still command a fee in the region of 35 million pounds.
Agree – I think his best position is centrally just behind the striker but emery has never played him there. I’d hold for one more season unless we need that money to get some defensive deals done this window. In which case, with there being ESR, Nelson and Saka waiting for the opportunities it would be a measured sacrifice to make.
If you can please give me evidence of him ‘continually improving’ that would be great. I didn’t see anything last year that demonstrated he’s going to get better.
Agree. He’s way too young for his value to drop next season. Give him one more year.
Being homegrown, I’d say that he’s at least worth £50m in this mad market. And he’s an Arsenal kid, right through the youth system.
Does Nelson and ESR count towards our quota?
The one thing that confused me this summer was that we apparently didn’t offer Iwobi as part of the Zaha deal. He was one of the few players we have who would have made sense for them.
I assumed the reason was he didn’t want to leave, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
£40m would be fantastic business
We need a fucking centreback who’s ready to go out of the box.
Coutinho for Iwobi would be nice, if not sublime.
But where the fuck is our centreback? And while we’re at it where the fuck is Kieran Tierney?
I’d rather we sell mikhi instead
Of course. But nobody want him
Sadly no one wants him, so we’re stuck with him
Not to mention his ridiculous salary
My thoughts too when I read this.., but I doubt if most top 10 clubs can afford his current champions league wage. Otherwise his impassionate play for Arsenal over the past two seasons (especially based on his inconsistent form last season plus age difference) would have been enough to pick Iwobi over him.
If there’s any truth to this, I’d take the £30 million like a shot and use to towards a deal for a quality centre back. Looks like there’s not much behind the report though.
If we could get 40m, I would say sell.
Spend that money and get Dayot.
Nelson and Pepe can fill those wide spots, and even tho he’s not all that great, we still have Mikky. He’s too expensive to be left out on the bench all season.
This sale could mabe make the Tierney deal more likely too.
Sell. #EmeryOut
I would sell him for 40 mill plus add on’s. You don’t win leagues with players like Iwobi, his finishing is poor.
If selling him gets us a centre back and right back then it’s a sacrifice I’d be willing to make.
We should sell as many player we can that player for Wenger during his last 8 years as our manager. Apart from Laca, Abu, and maybe holding, the rest are either OK players, average, dead wood and shit.
I am so glad we are shipping players out. We need players with that give 110 %, not 90% or 33 games and not try the last game. Or like our bastard ex c apitan who took the piss with the shirt thing. Sell iwobe for 50 mil and get Zaha.
I think him leaving the club would be very short sighted. Micki is here for one more season tops and it would be too much to expect the likes of Reiss et al to fill first team boots. Getting a defender should be on the agenda regardless of any movement of Iwobi. He’ll play a lot of games this season even if it’s not in the competitions we want.
I hope Iwobi doesn’t get sold at any price. Young, strong, skillful, a leader for Nigeria at international level, still developing. I won’t sell a player like this
I’d say money talks !! He didn’t improved in what we where expecting !! Between 30-40 million is a good price. #InRaulWeTrust
This saddens me a bit. I do think there’s a great CM in there (he was never a winger during the academy), and I don’t think he’s been treated harshly by too many fans. It’s not fair. HOWEVER…. If I am to remove my emotional cap, honestly? For £40M, it does make sense. We have younger player with potentially higher potential in the wide areas like Saka, Nelson and Martinelli, and selling him would give them more playtime. I do think he’s a great CM potentially, but you look there and we have Ceballos (albeit on loan), Guendz, and the… Read more »
Lol. What? He played the left wing most games at U23 Level, bar a 10 game spell in which he played up top when Akpom went on loan (and he scored 10 goals in that time).
1. Maybe you don’t know, but there are more levels to the academy than just u23s. Maybe you should’ve considered that before your comment?
2. He played most of his time throughout his development centrally, as a 0. He even said this at the AFCON a few weeks ago, unless you know more of his past than he does?
Add ten penalties to Iwobi’s goal tally and he’s almost as good as Pepe. Seeing as if you take Pepe’s goals from the penalty spot away, his return is just marginally better than Iwobi’s. And he played in the French League
So Fifty Million or nothing
He’s been decent, and has some potential, but not sure he will be a world beater. If we could get 40M for him at this point and turn around an put that into a top CB, I’d certainly do that.
We have enough current cover in the roles he plays.
I think he’s so close to being an amazing player for us. Wish he was playing centrally behind a foreward. If he sorts out his finishing (which I think is very plausible) he instantly jumps up severals levels because so much of his game is real top quality. End product counts though but I think he’s really close to becoming elite. Please keep him.
I’d be quite gutted to see Iwobi leave. He’s a good player with plenty of time to improve.
However, for about £40 million it would be tempting to sell him, bring in a centre back and keep hold of Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson to duke it out for his position.
I like Iwobi, he’s a hard worker and puts in a shift. His only flaws I would say are his end product and decision making at times. However, a bid north of £30m for him should be accepted. I know he has Arsenal DNA but we are not in a position to be sentimental, we need ruthlessness. We might never get another bid quite like this for him, so I’d sell him if Everton came back. Reinvest in a massive CB or two, like Koulibaly or Upamecano. The need is greater at CB than attacking-wise. Iwobi’s output will be replaced… Read more »
23-25 yr old Iwobi is worth significantly higher than 30million anytime anyday in today’s market.
30mil plus Theo. Bish bash bosh
I don’t like the idea of selling him or how cut-throat football has become but I understand from a business point of view if we could get 40+million for him we would be mad not to take it and invest in our defence.
I really don’t see what all the fuss is with Iwobi. He has poor decision making skills and appalling technique. If we can get $40m for him I’d be delighted.
I would whole out for 40 million, take the money and run
How do we compete with such business.
Imagine aubameyang & Pepe are injured, we play chel,Liverpool,manur. Who slots in..
30m? Look at the other isle, where mustafi, ozil, xhaka and micky are.
Iwobi is my favourite guy in the squad. He’s a true Arsenal lad and a solid guy to have in the squad. But if we got £40 million for him it would be hard for the club to turn down. Also with the options we have now with Pepe and the young players it might be better for Iwobi to nail down a starting position at Everton.
Take the money and run! No ill feelings towards him but £40m would be daylight robbery if we got that! Hopefully that would help fund Tierney and a centre back.
And two steps back again.
No thanks.
We need capabilities in depth. Which means we could do with Ozil rather than Mhkitaryan, Iwobi rather than rely on Nelson or younger players.
Would appear this year’s Arsenal/Everton fixtures will end 11-10 (or higher)