Club: Caen Value: £6m According to news this week, Arsenal have apparently stolen a march on both Tottenham and Newcastle in the race to sign highly-rated striker M'Baye Niang from French Ligue 2 side Caen by bringing the £6m rated striker on trial ahead of a proposed move. The French side announced the trial in a statement on their website:
Contrary to what has been written on certain French and foreign websites, M'Baye Niang has left to have a trial at Arsenal with the agreement of President Jean-Francois Fortin and Technical Staff headed by Patrice Garande. At this point, Caen has not received any offer from a club, either in France or abroad, for M'Baye Niang.
The French wonderkid, who is said to possess great pace and skills, is 6 foot tall and has already played for both the France U16 and U17 sides, and has turned out twice for the U21 side, as well as making 30 appearances for Caen, and scoring 5 goals. Right now Arsenal are facing stiff competition from Spurs, Chelsea and Manchester City who are now said to be interested in bringing the starlet to the Etihad, after the arsenal trial forced Roberto Mancini to declare his interest in bringing the teenager to City's Austrian pre-season camp.