Arsenal have re-entered negotiations with Palermo over the sale of Costa Rican forward Joel Campbell. The 23 year old looks like the next in a long line of departures this summer.
The Gunners had been in talks with Palermo for several weeks, but negotiations broke down following Arsenal’s reluctance to budge on a £7million asking price. The Italian side are reportedly willing to offer £5million, and it seems there could be a conclusion to negotiations over the next few weeks.
Campbell and his agent have indicated that the versatile forward wants to stay and fight for his place at The Emirates – but it looks like that will not be the case.
Arsene Wenger appears not to be a fan of the player and is willing to offload him when and if the clubs asking price is met. Campbell did attend the West Ham game at the weekend but was not match fit for the squad.
Although Wenger publicly backs his attacking options, there is a belief in and around the club that a new striker could be on the way. If Campbell were to leave, that belief would be strengthened. Campbell would join Lukas Podolski, Chuba Akpom (loan), Yaya Sanogo (loan) and Serge Gnabry (loan) in leaving the club this summer. That would leave Wenger with just Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck as recognised central strikers, although Theo Walcott is being used there more regularly.
It is plausible that if Welbeck takes a long time to return to first team football – Wenger may want to keep Campbell around as a bench option for the time being.