Arsenal are reportedly lining up a big money move for Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho, after failing to sign Real Madrid's Sami Khedira, due to his excessive wage demands.
Despite having a £37 million buy-out clause in his contract, Carvalho will prove to be a cheaper option than Khedira in the long run as he will not demand sky high wages.
The Gunners will be spending a total of £50 million if they sign the Germany international this summer, with Real Madrid wanting a transfer fee of £24 million and the midfielder demanding £150,000-a-week in wages, according to the Telegraph.
These figures are daunting and prove risky from an Arsenal point of view, considering Khedira is prone to injuries. Last season, the 27-year-old missed a large chunk of Madrid's campaign, following a cruciate ligament rupture. Plus, he has missed a considerbale number of matches during the three seasons prior to it, owing to injury and fitness issues.
Arsenal, who themselves have a reputation of losing key players to injuries every season, will probably not be confident on spending a fortune on the injury-prone Khedira.
And now, the north London club, who are desperately looking to sign a holding midfielder, seems have decided to give up on Khedira and divert their attentions to Carvalho.
The 22-year-old, who represented Portugal at the 2014 World Cup this summer, looks like the perfect candidate for Arsenal, who are looking to add some steel in the central midfield region.
Wenger, who earlier had a £24 million bid rejected for the Portuguese midfielder, may be willing to increase his offer as he looks to complete the deal as soon as possible.
Reports indicate that Sporting may be willing to listen to offers below £37 million (the amount in Carvalho's buy-out clause), provided they receive the money upfront.
Offering money upfront should not be a problem for Arsenal even though they spent a considerable sum on the transfers of Alexis Sanchez (Barcelona), Mathieu Debuchy (Newcastle), David Ospina (Nice) and Calum Chambers (Southampton).
However, there is one slight complication in their attempts to sign Carvalho as the player's rights are not completely owned by Sporting Lisbon. While the club owns 60 percent of the player's rights, the other 40 percent is owned by the company Sporting Portugal Fund.
So Arsenal will have to offer a deal that will be accepted by the club as well as the company.
