Adeyemi tells his camp Arsenal is the preferred move as Dortmund put a €70m price on the table
Arsenal’s pursuit of Karim Adeyemi has moved past quiet tracking and into something closer to pole position. The Germany international has told his camp that a move to Mikel Arteta’s side is his preferred next step, with Manchester United the other serious suitor but a less attractive one in the player’s mind. Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, have put a price tag of around €70m on the winger.
The context here matters. Adeyemi’s contract situation has been drifting for months, with Adeyemi unwilling to sign the extension BVB have offered without a release clause the club are reluctant to include, and the club now resigned to cashing in rather than losing him on worse terms later. Reports out of Germany put the floor at €60m and the preferred figure closer to €70m, which is roughly £52m to £61m depending on exchange rates.
Why Arsenal make sense to the player
There is no great mystery to Adeyemi’s thinking. Arteta’s project is stable, the squad is chasing titles, and London is a more appealing relocation than Manchester for someone who cares about what a move looks like off the pitch as much as on it. United’s recent turbulence at managerial and ownership level has not helped their pitch either.
On the pitch, Arteta is understood to see Adeyemi as right-wing cover and long-term competition, a direct runner with the pace to stretch back lines that have started to sit deeper and deeper against the Gunners. That profile has been missing at times this season, particularly when Bukayo Saka has been rested or played through injury.
Where this leaves United
Manchester United have made contact and, on paper, can match the fee. The manager question is the complicating factor. Michael Carrick is only in the dugout on an interim basis after Ruben Amorim’s January sacking, and until a permanent appointment is made, convincing a forward with options to pick Old Trafford over the Emirates is a harder sell than it was a year ago.
Dortmund would prefer a clean sale to whichever club moves first and meets the valuation. If Arsenal are ready to go early in the window, this is the kind of deal that tends to close quickly once the player’s preference and the selling club’s asking price line up. It might not be the marquee name that fronts a summer, but it could be one of the first dominoes to fall.
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