Arsenal supporters have been rocked by news that Tottenham Hotspur have made an 11th hour bid for William Saliba.
The Saint-Etienne defender has been on the Gunners' radar for pretty much the entire summer and it was even claimed earlier in the week that they were close to sealing a transfer worth £27m.
However, on Friday afternoon reports from France claimed that Spurs had outbid their north London rivals and that a meeting was planned to finalise the deal.
As expected, this development didn't go down too well amongst Gunners fans .
football.london have since revealed that Tottenham have indeed made a late move to snatch Saliba from under Arsenal's noses and reports in France suggest their offer is more lucrative.
However, it's not all bad news for Unai Emery's side.
The Ligue 1 outfit are understood to be demanding Saliba returns to the club on loan next season - something which Mauricio Pochettino admitted back in January that Spurs couldn't do when discussing Chelsea's deal for Christian Pulisic.
"It's true we're the team to beat. Remember when we fought with Leicester, everyone wanted to kill us," he said. "That's because they showed respect to us because in the project that we are in – because for many people we're not very successful because we still haven't won a trophy – [yet] the people respect us in the way we're doing it.
"It's not being arrogant, it's being realistic. 'Oh why are Tottenham there?' A club like Chelsea can spend big money on a transfer and then send him on loan – do you think Tottenham can do this? No.
"But in the last few years Tottenham is fighting with this type of club. That is why no-one likes Tottenham much, that is why everyone wants to challenge us."
With that said, it would be a remarkable turn of events if Spurs can spend £27m on a player only to loan him back out immediately.
This could be seen as a big boost for Emery who is in need of some good news following a week which has seen his captain Laurent Koscielny refuse to go on the club's pre-season tour to the United States.
