I don't think they're holding out for as much as that, their own sporting director told the BBC publicly that it will most likely be in the 30s:

"It's probably going to start with a number three in front of it and that will give us great opportunities to maybe make the whole squad better as well. We’re really relaxed on that front."

If we want to we should be able to get this one over the line pretty quickly. Norwich seem to know that he'll be leaving this summer, their price tag isn't unreasonably high (like Palace and Zaha), and there isn't a ton of high profile competition.

based on what bell and romano have been saying we've been courting him since at least January, and possibly even before that. this is a deal that should get done

Why is everyone wishlisting him through the middle? Transfermarkt (and from the videos I've seen) - he's played all his games from the right in a 4231 (hey! we play that!), where he's been killing it, and my gut tells me he won't playing 10 for Argentina either - just a hunch.

Villa are in the front seat apparently

Martinez is prob brainwashing him

Some Villa ITK on twitter claiming Villa is close to agreement with Norwich demands and personal terms not a problem. Arsenal far off.

EDIT: Just saw Watts saying Villa is ahead too

It makes more sense squad-building wise for him to go there. He doesn't look like a 10 to me in a 4231 despite what lads on the internet are writing - not nearly as much as Odegaard or ESR do anyway - so he'd be on the right here competing with Pepe and Saka? OK - maybe you move Saka to the left because he's just as brilliant there, but it's still a lot of money and resources to a position where we already have very good (albeit perhaps not Buendia good) options, and we have about 5 other signings we need to make - probably 3 of which need to be first XI signings.

Aston Villa on the other hand can guarantee him 38 league starts on the right and aren't as much of a mess as us in terms of their squad composition. They can pool all their resources to get him.

I can see it

Then being ‘ahead’ means nothing.

If we really want him he'll come here.

spaceman spiff wrote:

It makes more sense squad-building wise for him to go there. He doesn't look like a 10 to me in a 4231 despite what lads on the internet are writing - not nearly as much as Odegaard or ESR do anyway - so he'd be on the right here competing with Pepe and Saka?

He'll have to play primarily on the right I think, which makes a lot of sense. The rest is just adapting the team to circumstances. I think we could use another player in the mix. Saka and Smith-Rowe should play a little less frequently next season, ideally.

Martinelli could similarly use a defined role. Is he going to go up front or is he going to be a left winger? You would have to assume the former given what our squad looks like. Laca, Willian and (sadly) Ødegaard out the door and Buendia coming in feels like very sensible business on our part.

Klaus wrote:

If we really want him he'll come here.

If HE really wants, he’ll come here too.

Without wanting to sound arrogant no 24 yr old is going to choose Villa over us.

if we don't get him it's because we never made a serious move, or we're just slow/incompetent

I think he will play in the middle quite a bit, has all the attributes for it, actually think he could play as one of the cm's as well to teams at home in the bottom half, etc.. versatility is a big plus.

He reminds me of Cazorla, who also started as a right winger, but became a completely different/better player centrally.

Would be really embarrassing to lose out to Villa.

Gazza M wrote:

if we don't get him it's because we never made a serious move, or we're just slow/incompetent

There’s no reason why we should be flirting with players just to tease them with our state of affairs...

Now being reported as a done deal (to Villa) by a couple of Norwich based journos who are apparently very reliable, announcement tomorrow...

goon wrote:

Now being reported as a done deal by a couple of Norwich based Journo who apparently very reliable, announcement tomorrow...

What is? A done deal for us or Villa? 

Yeah edited to clarify, done deal to Villa.