Surprise surprise, Arsenal are showing interest in another player they can’t afford to pay the full price for. This seems to be a common theme among the years for us as fans, but even more so given the light of the current transfer market. It is negatively impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak and fans are expecting a market crash.

Rumours from Norwich Evening News suggest that Arsenal are showing a keen interest in signing Max Aarons, however, they are not willing to pay the £30m asking price for the right-back. Ageing at 20 years old, this is a completely fair valuation from the Canaries, however, I can understand why the Arsenal board are hesitant to pay such a fee.

There are ways around it, though. Arsenal is presented with three options. Option 1 is that they barter with Norwich City over the price tag, which I think is worthwhile since Norwich will be getting relegated this season anyway, so they can’t afford to keep such a high price on their star player.

Option 2 is that Arsenal present the Norfolk side with a tempting swap deal, with the first name that springs to mind being Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Or option 3 is that Arsenal drops their interest and focus elsewhere, which is not what I would want since Max Aarons is a player with a great future ahead of him and it would be a shame to see him go.

Perhaps the Norfolk boy inside of me is being biased, but I do see a lot of potential in Aarons. Particularly under Mikel Arteta, he could mature into the perfect Hector Bellerin backup. He’d certainly be surrounded by the right mentors and his head is already in the right place for success. He’s definitely far too good for the EFL Championship, even at his age.

Cover image: @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London, 2017