9 months ago
44 Regarding Arsenal’s chances of signing Kylian Mbappe this summer, David Ornstein said that they are among the teams that would be thrilled to have the Frenchman join them.
Kylian Mbappe’s desire to leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season has alerted all of the top teams in the world.
The Frenchman, who could have broken all transfer records, will be a free agent in the summer after his contract is set to expire at PSG. He will be the most expensive free agent in football history.
In the competition to recruit the 25-year-old, the Gunners appear to be the underdogs.
According to David Ornstein, in an interview with NBC Sports, Real Madrid are currently the clear favourites.
However, he did imply that many Premier League teams would be happy to sign him right away if they could.
“Paris Saint-Germain always have thought there’s been an agreement with Real Madrid. But we don’t know of it just yet. Real Madrid set a deadline in January for Kylian Mbappe to accept their contract proposal, but that passed. So it’s likely he will have to settle for a lesser salary if he goes there,” he said.
“And that may make many people say, well what about the Premier League? What about the likes of Arsenal, of Chelsea, of Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United?
“The truth is the finances don’t work for them. They would love to do it. They would be able to do it, in terms of their own ownership. Just look at Newcastle, they could afford to do it. But under these Profit and Sustainability Rules that the likes of Everton have come a cropper with, they just cannot afford to pay the salary. So it would require Kylian Mbappe to drop his salary demands, or maybe find the money from somewhere else to pay him in different means. But the reality is the full expectation is that he will sign for Real Madrid.”
Every Premier League team will be cautious about becoming overly entangled in the competition. Mbappe and his agents will ultimately be concerned with securing the best possible deal for the player. Naturally, getting the greatest financial terms is part of it.
It’s clear that Mbappe is a superstar. And whichever team signs him this summer will likely be putting him in position for his best years yet.
But, any negotiations with other teams would undoubtedly be conducted with the goal of getting a better contract at the Bernabeu if he is dead set on Madrid and Los Blancos are prepared to acquire him.
Even though Mbappe will be a free agent, his financial package will be highly lucrative and Premier League teams would have to allot a large part of their budget on his salary, bonuses and signing on fee.
