Manchester City and Arsenal have been offered Monaco’s Radamel Falcao for around £55m (€70m) and are battling to sign the Colombia international before the transfer window closes at 11pm on Monday night. A deal at that price would smash the clubs’ transfer record.
Arsenal are in the hunt for a striker after the injury suffered by Olivier Giroud, who is out until the new year with a broken tibia. Their fans implored Arsène Wenger to sign a forward during Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Leicester City in which the inexperienced Yaya Sanogo led the line without distinction.
One potential handicap for City is that they are trying to make the deal happen within the constraints of Uefa’s financial fair play system. Manuel Pellegrini wants to sign Falcao but the sense at the club is that time could run out. City are allowed a net spend of £49m and have around £24m at the moment after Jack Rodwell, Javi García and Gareth Barry departed.
City would need more than to double the money available to them and would be willing to move on Álvaro Negredo, Micah Richards, Matija Nastasic and Scott Sinclair to close the gap. There is interest in Richards from Sunderland but his wages may be an issue.
Negredo is the prime asset among those and he has been interesting Real Madrid, but it is Valencia who are close to securing a deal for the striker on a loan deal, with an option to buy for €25m (£20m), which would take Negredo’s wages off City’s balance sheet.
One option that may be explored by City is a loan deal for Falcao, 28, with the option of buying him in January or next summer. He has been available for loan at about £20m, covering a fee to Monaco and wages. It is thought that Txiki Begiristain, the City director of football, discussed the potential transfer with Monaco during Thursday’s Champions League draw in the principality.
Falcao’s camp have been pushing to get him to Real Madrid but have encountered unexpected resistance from the decision-makers at the Bernabéu, although they have not given up hope of concluding that transfer. Falcao deleted a tweet on Saturday that indicated he was moving to the club. He claimed his account had been hacked.
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