Arsenal has made a big-money offer to sign one of La Liga’s most promising young players but faces significant competition from fellow Premier League side Liverpool, according to reports.
The Gunners have already had a strong summer window, recruiting Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City as well as Portuguese playmaker Fabio Vieira.
Manager Mikel Arteta is also keen to sign a new winger to provide cover and competition with Bukayo Saka on the right wing in particular and the club briefly pursued a deal for Raphinha – though he only wanted to join Barcelona.
Arsenal has remained attentive to the possibility of bringing in a new attacker who can play across the frontline and appear to have landed on Villarreal’s Yeremi Pino.
According to Radio Villarreal, The Yellow Submarine is giving serious consideration to cashing in on the 19-year-old, who also goes by the nickname Yeremy.
Villarreal has had a quiet summer – only signing Kiko Femenia, Jose Luis Morales and Pepe Reina – and need to offload at least one big name in order for manager Unai Emery to bring in more new faces.
They had been expecting big offers for the likes of Arnaut Danjuma and Pau Torres but deals never materialized, so now Yeremy could be sold instead.
The teenager is arguably Villarreal’s brightest young talent and he has a release clause worth €80million (£67.5m).
He scored six goals and laid on four assists in 21 starts in La Liga last season, having enjoyed a breakout campaign the season before that as Villarreal won the Europa League – beating Arsenal on the way in the semi-final.
Yeremy did not play in the first leg – which his side won – but featured off the bench in the second leg at the Emirates, which was a goalless draw as Villarreal progressed 2-1 on aggregate.