Arsenal and Newcastle set to go head to head for Moussa Diaby

Arsenal could witness Newcastle United’s spending power first-hand with the Magpies reportedly holding an interest in Moussa Diaby. The Bayer Leverkusen has been regularly linked with a move to the Emirates in the past but Mikel Arteta could be set to miss out with Eddie Howe said to be keen to bring him to St James’ Park instead.

Newcastle have started to flex their financial might in recent transfer windows as the PIF spend big to improve Howe’s starting XI. Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman have been among the most notable arrivals with the club spending over £275million since the start of 2022.

The north east side are expected to be active in the transfer market again this summer and it appears Diaby could be one of their top targets. The Frenchman has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal in the past and the Gunners could now be about to see Newcastle’s true spending power.

90min reports that Leverkusen have placed a £62million valuation on Diaby’s services with the Magpies very interested in signing him. However, Arsenal are also said to still be in the running with the Premier League rivals potentially going head-to-head for his signature.

The report also suggests left-back Mitchell Bakker is a target for Newcastle as a potential alternative to Arsenal star Kieran Tierney who has been heavily linked in recent weeks.

Diaby is understandably highly rated by Leverkusen as one of their key players in recent years. He has scored 12 times in 34 appearances in all competitions this season from a wide position. The club’s managing director of sport, Simon Rolfes, has told Express Sport that he would like to keep him at the club for as long as possible given his obvious quality.

“When I see Moussa Diaby, for example, from when he joined three years ago compared to now in front of the goal, it’s not by coincidence that he scores more goals,” Rolfes said in an exclusive interview with Express Sport in October.

“You can see it in training. He works a lot on his finishing. He missed a lot of goals a few years ago, also in training but now it’s a different story. You can see the progress of our players… sometimes you have to give them a little bit of time but to work individually with the players, it’s key. They have to learn a lot.

“For sure, we want to keep Moussa for as long as possible. I know a lot of scouts have been sitting on our tribune during our matches because we have a lot of interesting, exciting young players with high potential”.