Exclusive: Crystal Palace make opening offer for attacker transfer that could impact Arsenal

Crystal Palace have made an opening bid for the potential transfer of Marseille winger Ismaila Sarr as they look to bring in a quality replacement for Michael Olise, who left for Bayern Munich earlier this summer.

Sources close to the situation have informed CaughtOffside that Palace have tabled an opening offer of €15m for Sarr, and Marseille could be ready to sell the Senegal international as they look to raise funds to help them sign Eddie Nketiah from Arsenal.

New Marseille manager Roberto de Zerbi has cleared Sarr to leave the club, CaughtOffside understands, and it seems his most likely destination will be a return to the Premier League after previously shining in the English top flight in a spell with Watford.

Marseille probably won’t miss Sarr too much, but he looks a potentially fine signing for Palace, even if he hasn’t quite lived up to the potential he showed a few years ago.

Sarr transfer: Crystal Palace to sign player who once wowed Gary Neville

Palace fans may remember that there was a time when Sarr was being talked up as a player Gary Neville was eager to see sign for Manchester United.

“Manchester United need a right winger. He’s a big, big talent, honestly he really is,” Neville said on his podcast back in 2020, as quoted by the Mail.

“We’ve seen his performances before but tonight he was a shining light, even in that first half there were periods where Watford did attack and it was through him. So yeah he’ll be sought after and Watford will, I’m sure, cash in if they get the right bid.”

Clearly, Sarr’s career hasn’t panned out as expected, but he also won’t have lost all that talent, and perhaps Oliver Glasner is the ideal manager to get the best out of him again.