The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has for the first time publicly revealed that he is interested in signing the Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha in the January transfer window. He is expected to start with an opening bid of £ 9 million, although Crystal Palace are looking for a transfer fee in the region of £ 20 million for the 20-year-old. Wilfried Zaha has been thought to be the biggest thing to come from the Crystal Palace youth academy since the days of Ian Wright, who went on to play for Arsenal and become a legend for the club.
Arsene Wenger has not shied away from signing highly talented English talent in recent seasons, as he has brought the likes of Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey. Given the fact that the future of the 23-year-old winger Theo Walcott is in a major doubt, Wenger is already looking at other options. It has been thought for some time that Arsenal have made Wilfried Zaha the number one transfer target for the January transfer window, but Wenger has been reluctant to confirm publicly. However, with only a few weeks remaining before the opening of the transfer window, he has said that the Crystal Palace winger is someone who interests him a lot.
“We are looking at every player who could strengthen our squad – but he is not more on the list than anyone else. He has two-and-a-half years left – that’s quite a long time. We have built a team [where] we have a lot of young English players, or British players like Gibbs, Chamberlain, Wilshere. We still have the case of [Theo] Walcott, Aaron Ramsey,” said Wenger when asked about the possibility of signing Zaha in January. Arsenal are currently fighting to be in the top four spot by the end of the season.