Arsenal boss Unai Emery says Arsenal are "following" Lille winger Nicolas Pepe but insists the deal is not complete.
Standard Sport understands the deal is actually much closer than Emery is letting on and the Gunners are set to announce the club-record £72million signing of Pepe.
The 24-year-old, who underwent a medical on Tuesday, will become Emery's fourth signing of the summer and the Arsenal boss is expected to be busy in the final week of the transfer window as he targets further additions.
Speaking after the shoot-out win over Angers on Wednesday, Emery said: "[Pepe] played here in Angers a few years ago, and then in Lille. He has progressed as a player.
"We are speaking about a lot of players, we want to select on players who can really help us, give us big performances and improve our squad.
"We have different options. This one at the moment is not closed, but he is one we are following."
Though Emery insists the deal has not been finalised it is understood Arsenal had hoped to be in a position to unveil Pepe on Wednesday.
"No deal is official now, and I will only speak in the next hours or days if it can be official for us," he added.
"We are working on the possibilities to sign players. We signed [Dani] Ceballos, and we have a possibility with Pepe. We are looking for the possibility to improve, but only if we can take more steps in the squad.
"Our target is to sign another player if he can really, really improve us.
Meanwhile, Arsenal retain an interest in Celtic defender Kieran Tierney, but have so far failed to match their asking price of around £25m.
