Arsenal are ahead of Manchester United in the race to sign Leipzig wonderkid Benjamin Sesko.
That is according to football journalist David Ornstein, who has given the state of play on the Slovenia striker.
READ MORE: Is Sesko the new Haaland? What Arsenal fans can expect from €75m signing
FootballTransfers exclusively revealed last week that Arsenal have made a concrete step towards signing Sesko.
But we understand that the Gunners have not submitted a bid big enough to trigger the player’s release clause of €65 million.
FootballTransfers can confirm that Arsenal have launched a bid of €55m for the 21-year-old in the hope this is accepted.
And Ornstein says that Arsenal are ahead in the race for Sesko.
What did David Ornstein say about Sesko?
“He’s a high performer, and he was attracting interest when he was at Salzburg,” Ornstein said.
“We come to the modern day and I’ve spoken before about how highly Arsenal think of him. He’s pretty much top or very prominent on their list of candidates.
“Things aren’t actually happening with him just yet, there are lots of conversations, his agent has been very active on social media.’
“Manchester United, it’s more complicated there because of the managerial situation, financial situation, football situation. The feeling is that a club like Arsenal are perhaps ahead of them at this time because they’re very settled, very competitive and it’s a good time to be involved at Arsenal.”
As FootballTransfers also exclusively revealed, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta switched his focus to signing Sesko during the spring, when Kai Havertz’s hot form in front of goal convinced him that he did not need to blow a huge portion of his summer transfer budget on a player worth €100 million or more.
Sesko has since intimated that he is open to joining the Emirates club ahead of other options in the Premier League, including Chelsea and Manchester United.
Sesko scored 18 goals in 42 games for his club last season and will go to Euro 2024 with Slovenia later this month.
