Wily Wenger aims to nip ahead of

ARSENAL will use Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s famous desire to drive a hard bargain to secure the signature of Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.

Spurs have a long-standing interest in the England man, but Levy is hoping to cut Everton’s ambitious £50m asking price in half by waiting until the final days of the transfer window.

Tottenham’s record outlay is only £30m and Levy believes they won’t have to break it for a player who has just a year left on his contract.

Levy has a reputation of taking his deals down to the wire and will be banking on Everton blinking first and cutting Barkley’s price to avoid a situation in which he can leave for nothing next summer.

With Barkley’s value falling virtually bythedayitwouldturnintoagameof brinksmanship which would inevitably leave Everton as the losers.

But Gunners boss Arsene Wenger (right), who has three of his own stars – Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alex OxladeChamberlain – in the same situation as Barkley, is considering offering £30m now.

It’s highly unlikely Wenger will be able to hang on to morethanoneofthetrioand, should he lose both Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain, he will be light in midfield with injured Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere expected to miss at least the opening three months of the new season.

A transfer to the Emirates would give Barkley a better opportunity to restart his stalled career than a move to Spurs, where he would be in direct competition with Dele Alli for the No.10 role and with Christian Eriksen, Moussa Dembele and Victor Wanyama for the other midfield positions.

Everton boss Ronald Koeman became increasingly impatient with Barkley last season and, in the end, gave him a “signor-we’ll-sellyou” ultimatum. Hetold theplayer

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