The Evening Standard report that West Ham United are interested in Sunderland defender Daniel Ballard, who joined the Championship side in a £2m deal with Arsenal last summer.
The defender is also attracting interest from other clubs in England and abroad, but the Hammers seem particularly keen.
West Ham are in the hunt for a centre-back following the January departure of Craig Dawson, and David Moyes is also specifically looking to add homegrown players to his squad.
Ballard would fit the bill on both fronts, and the young Northern Ireland international is clearly highly rated.
Should Ballard move on to West Ham or elsewhere, Arsenal would be in line to profit from the deal.
According to Football.London, the Gunners negotiated a ‘significant’ sell-on clause into Ballard’s transfer last summer.
Though there was no official word on the exact percentage Arsenal had managed to negotiate, you’d expect to get further details on that if and when Ballard’s sale materialises.
With Arsenal making some significant moves in the market this summer, they’ll take all the help they can get with raising funds.
The likes of Kieran Tierney, Folarin Balogun, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, and Charlie Patino are more likely to provide the bulk of the money coming in, but there are certain to be some lower-profile deals as well.
Nikolaj Moller is the only confirmed sale of Arsenal’s summer so far, though Pablo Mari is also widely reported to be joining AC Monza for a fee of around £6m.