Report: Arsenal rival PL club for £20m wonderkid compared with Chelsea great | OneFootball

Arsenal are reportedly among the clubs eyeing highly-rated young midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi, who has drawn comparisons with Chelsea great Michael Essien.

The 19-year-old is seemingly emerging as a top target for Bournemouth, but the Gunners are also keen.

And according to the Daily Mail, Yirenkyi would likely cost around £20m to sign from Danish club Nordsjaelland, which could end up being a bargain in the long run.

Can Arsenal win the race to sign Caleb Yirenkyi, the next Michael Essien?

Essien is one of the best midfielders of the Premier League era, having proven a big hit as he won major trophies such as the Premier League and Champions League during his time at Stamford Bridge.

If Yirenkyi can get anywhere close to that then he’ll surely have had a fine career, so it makes sense that clubs are keeping an eye on him as someone with great potential.

Caleb Yirenkyi in action for Ghana (Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)

Bournemouth looks like an ideal next step for the youngster, as it could afford him a good chance to play regularly and develop before earning a big move later.

The Cherries have tended to cash in on their star players, as we saw with Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez leaving this summer for Real Madrid and Liverpool, respectively.

Still, Arsenal will also undoubtedly be keen to snap up a talent like this, so it will be interesting to see if they can move to the front of the queue and persuade the Ghana international to move to the Emirates Stadium even if he’s perhaps less likely to be an automatic starter there straight away.

Bournemouth could soon have money to spend

As noted by the Mail’s report, Bournemouth have teams eyeing up star forward Antoine Semenyo at the moment.

The in-form winger is valued at around £65m, so if he leaves it could free up plenty of money for Bournemouth to spend on new signings for other areas of their squad.

If Yirenkyi really is available for just £20m, then that should be easily affordable for Andoni Iraola’s side, so it will be interesting to see how much these two sagas end up being linked together.