Arsenal are hoping a club-record deal worth £72million for Nicolas Pepe will be completed by the weekend.
The Gunners have been on the hunt for a wide forward all summer and failed with a bid for Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace earlier this month.
A key issue of Arsenal’s pursuit of Zaha was Palace’s insistence that they receive a large amount of his £80m asking price up front.
That proved to be a stumbling block for the Gunners, but they are now hoping to tie up a deal for Lille winger Pepe instead.
Standard Sport understands talks are progressing well over a deal for the Ivorian and it is hoped his move to north London will be completed by the weekend.
An agreement is in place with Lille over the structuring of the deal, which will see the £72m fee paid in instalments in keeping with Arsenal’s summer transfer budget of around £40m.
The club are now working on the finer points of a deal for Pepe, with the 24-year-old also needing to undergo a medical this week.
The winger was on holiday in the United States last week after playing for Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations.
However, he has now returned to France in preparation for being called to London Colney to undergo a medical.
The signing of Pepe will be viewed as a major coup for Arsenal as the winger was the second top scorer in Ligue 1 last season.
The Ivorian scored 22 goals in France’s top division, with only Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe beating that tally.
Napoli had been interested in signing the winger and his representatives were in talks with them last week.
However, Arsenal firmed up their interest over the weekend and they are now hoping to sign him by the weekend.
