Arsenal have placed an opening bid for Joaquin Correa, but Lazio deemed it too low. The Biancocelesti are not adamant about keeping the attacker and will consider selling him to fund their reinforcement campaign. However, the Gunners offered €20M, while the Italian side wants at least €35/40M to start a negotiation, La Repubblica reports.
New coach Maurizio Sarri received reassurances that Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Francesco Acerbi would not be sold this summer. Correa did not make the list of untouchable players. He is not the cleanest fit for 4-3-3, as he generally plays as a second striker or no.10. However, the gaffer has not picked up a go-to scheme yet. Moreover, he wants to see if the Argentinian international could maybe adapt to a flank role before greenlighting the sale, Tuttomercatoweb informs.
Lazio could be open for business in the upcoming window as they need money to fulfill the requests of the new manager. Correa was purchased from Sevilla for €15M in 2018. He was brought to Italy by Sampdoria in 2016. He has three years left on his contract, which has a €70M release clause.
The slippery striker has posted 30 goals and 18 assists during his time in the Italian Capital. He scored 11 times and provided six assists in 38 appearances across all competitions last season. Lazio have been linked to Josip Ilicic as a possible relatively cheap addition to replace Correa. The Slovenian attacker fell out of the favor in the second part of last season, and his deal with Atalanta expires in 2022.