Arsenal have confirmed an agreement has been reached with Besiktas for Leandro Trossard.
The Belgian will leave as a fan favourite and be remembered as a cult hero for his role in ending the 22-year wait for a Premier League title.
Fans and his teammates have been sending him farewell messages, including Riccardo Calafiori.
It has been a departure largely expected, considering the left-winger options the Gunners have been linked with all summer.
👀 How much is Leandro Trossard worth to Arsenal? Should the Gunners be selling him at all?!
Now, according to Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal believe they have found their ideal replacement for Trossard.
Why Arsenal see Christos Tzolis as the ideal Leandro Trossard replacement
Romano reports that Christos Tzolis has not been open to approaches from any other club.
He wants Arsenal, and club-to-club talks with Club Brugge are expected shortly.
Tzolis has always been viewed internally as the ideal candidate to replace Trossard.
In some ways, Tzolis rolls together the best qualities of both Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli into one player.
He has the pace of Martinelli, but is more powerful, and the technical ability in tight spaces that made Trossard so effective.
He also has a shooting ability that has been turning heads, including a recent eye-catching effort in a pre-season game against Feyenoord.
Arsenal have been tracking him for some time and see him as a player they can get ahead of the curve on.
At around £35million, although a gamble, the fee looks fairly modest in a transfer market that has gone completely mad this summer.
The big question mark around Arsenal signing Christos Tzolis
The obvious concern with the deal is the level.
Tzolis has been excellent at Club Brugge, but the Premier League is a different kettle of fish.
He did have a spell in England before at Norwich, though he was very young at the time and he didn’t exactly play with the best of players.
However, Trossard himself made the step up from the Belgian league to Brighton at a similar stage of his career and never looked out of place.
Arsenal will be hoping Tzolis follows a similar trajectory.
This is a completely different deal to the ‘top winger’ Arsenal are supposed to sign too.
Morgan Rogers is the number one target here, with Bradley Barcola being considered as an alternative.
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