Unai Emery confirms Arsenal ace is close to agreeing a new deal

He has attracted attention from European clubs

Alex Iwobi came through the ranks of Arsenal and made his senior debut in the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in League Cup in 2015. He want on to make 24 appearances in all competition that season.

The midfielder continued his development under former manager Arsene Wenger and became an integral part of the squad. He featured prominently last season, scoring 3 goals across 40 appearances in all competitions.

He signed a new 5 year deal back in October 2016 but talks over a new deal began last December as the Gunners were impressed with his performances and wanted to keep hold of him for a long time.

The Premier League giants wanted the deal done before the World Cup as he was in the Nigeria World Cup squad but the talks got delayed as Arsene Wenger stepped down as the manager and club got busy finding his replacement.

The Nigeria International has been linked with a number of European clubs this summer, including Lazio, played no part in the 3-1 penalty shoot-out defeat to Atletico Madrid, having only just returned from a break following his exertions at the World Cup.

Former Paris Saint-Germain boss Unai Emery boss was appointed as the new manager back in May and has been very busy in the transfer window in order to secure new signings.

The Spaniard has completed the signings of Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria, Matteo Guendouzi from Lorient, Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen, Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund and Stephan Lichtsteiner from Juventus.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka have already signed new long term contract extensions. It was thought that the versatile attacking player and Aaron Ramsey would follow them.

Emery has now confirmed that Iwobi is very close to agreeing a new deal with the club ahead of meeting with his former club PSG in the International Champions Cup.

“I have the information – he’s near,” He said as quoted by Goal. “First, I want to work with every player, and they are coming.

“Mesut [Ozil], Iwobi, [Mohamed] Elneny are starting to work with us, the first week is very good. My information is he is going to sign and continue with us.”

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