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Arsenal transfer news: Unai Emery given green light over M'Baye Niang by Torino chief
ARSENAL have received a huge boost in their pursuit of Torino star M'Baye Niang.
The club’s sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has admitted that he cannot rule out the player leaving this summer with the Gunners reportedly leading the race to sign the highly-rated striker.
Torino signed the 23-year-old on an initial season-long loan from AC Milan in 2017 with an obligation to buy.
The overall deal was reported to be worth around £17.8million (€20m).
Niang made 67 appearances for Milan before the switch, scoring eight goals, but it’s his brief stint in the Premier League that will appeal to Arsenal.
The centre-forward spent the second half of the 2016/17 season on loan at Watford where he notched two goals and two assists in 16 games.
If he wants to test himself somewhere else, we cannot rule that out
But he has come to attention this summer following his impressive displays for Senegal at the World up in Russia.
His country failed to make it out of a difficult group that contained Colombia, Japan and Poland but he still managed to score one goal and set up another.
New boss Unai Emery has been overhauling his squad this summer in a bid to mount a title challenge next term and reports say the Gunners have already enquired about the availability of Niang.
Sporting director Petrachi appears to have opened the door for the star but warned any bid will need to match what Torino paid last year.
"He had a great World Cup and has his admirers,” Petrachi told Sportitalia.
"Then, we look at the player's will to make an evaluation.
"He has just arrived, he trains and if he wants to test himself somewhere else, we cannot rule that out.
"But there must be requirements that satisfy Torino, given the expenditure we made a year ago.
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Arsenal transfer news - who has Unai Emery signed and sold this summer?
Players In:
Stephan Lichtsteiner (Juventus, free), Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkeusen, undisclosed), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Borussia Dortmund, undisclosed), Matteo Guendouzi (Lorient, undisclosed), Lucas Torreira (Sampdoria, undisclosed).
Players Out:
Per Mertesacker (retired), Santi Cazorla (released), Jack Wilshere (West Ham, free), Marc Bola (Blackpool, free), Kelechi Nwakali (Porto, loan).