Crystal Palace are exploring a move for Villareal attacking midfielder Yeremy Pino as they continue to evaluate options to replace Eberechi Eze.
Spain international Pino, has been on the radar of the likes of Tottenham, Bournemouth and Everton in recent months and Palace are the latest to check on his availability.
Key will be whether they can match his valuation and convince him to move to Selhurst Park.
So far Palace have made offers for Christos Tzolis at Bruges and El Bilal Khannouss of Leicester City. They have also discussed Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott among others internally but recognise the difficulty of keeping deals within their financial constraints while matching Oliver Glasner ambitions at the same time.
Getafe attacking midfielder Christantus Uche is another who has been floated with West Ham and Brentford also showing degrees of interest in the Nigeria international.
Palace are working on a deal for Wolves forward Hwang Hee-Chan and will continue to assess what is available in the last weeks of the window.
Crystal Palace are exploring a deal for Villareal attacking midfielder Yeremy Pino (right)
The Eagles are on the search for a Eberechi Eze replacement, with their talesman likely to move to Arsenal
Eze looked bound to join Tottenham Hotspur after they spent 10 days negotiating a deal with Palace worth around £55m plus add-ons.
But the England midfielder made a dramatic U-turn on Wednesday when Arsenal expressed their interest in him as a possible replacement for Kai Havertz, who is set for an extended period on the sidelines.
Eze favours a move to Arsenal and the deal is believed to be moving quickly.
Despite the sudden development, in actuality Arsenal have been laying the groundwork for the move for some time.
Sporting director Andrea Berta and manager Mikel Arteta met Eze last month, and he was sold on the idea of moving to the Gunners but an offer failed to materialise at that time.
Eze is a boyhood Arsenal fan and was in their youth system before he was released at the age of 13.
His release clause of £60m, plus £8m in bonuses, lapsed last week.
The Gunners swooped in late on Wednesday to hijack Spurs’ move for the England midfielder
Tottenham had previously been closing in on a deal for Eze after spending 10 days negotiating with Crystal Palace
Daily Mail Sport understands Spurs agreed to Palace’s demands on Wednesday and also agreed terms with Eze. At that stage, the player was keen to finalise the move.
However, Palace are understood to have insisted Eze remain available for their Conference League play-off first leg against Norwegian side Fredrikstad on Thursday night.
The Gunners had earmarked signing the 27-year old England international earlier in the window and knew they were his preference but, following their £63m outlay on Viktor Gyokeres, they had wanted to concentrate on outgoings before adding another left-sided attacker.
There is dismay at Tottenham at how things have unfolded, but a belief that there is little more that they could have done.
Tottenham moved for Eze after James Maddison was ruled out for the majority of the season with a serious knee injury.
Talks had been progressing but stalled as Palace scrambled for a suitable replacement, with Spurs even understood to have proposed offering forward Richarlison as part of the deal to help negotiations progress.
Spurs’ inability to close the deal will prompt further criticism from fans, after the club missed out on Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White this summer.
The club remain interested in Manchester City winger Savinho and Brentford’s Yoane Wissa but both clubs are reluctant to sell. Eze has been training with Palace ahead of tonight’s game, along with Liverpool target Marc Guehi.
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner said: ‘They will play a crucial part for as long as they’re here.’
