Arsenal are keeping tabs on Gent star Jonathan David as they weigh up a summer move.
The 20-year-old frontman has emerged as a top target with the north London club wary of losing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette.
David, a Canadian international, moved to Belgium from Ottawa Internationals two years ago and has been in the goals this term.
His 23 goals in 39 outings make him the league's top scorer and Arsenal scouts have been impressed when they've observed him, reports Goal.
Since moving to Europe David has notched 35 times, 12 coming in his debut season, and has shown his ability in the Europa League with five goals.
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The youngster does not have a release clause inserted into his contract but a fee of around £17.5m is expected to be enough to convince Gent to sell up.
Arsenal will not be short of cash this summer, especially if one of Aubameyang or Lacazette depart for pastures new.
The former has been the Gunners most regular supply of goals since arriving at the Emirates in January 2018 and would be a huge miss, but with his contract winding down the club may be forced into selling.
Mikel Arteta though is confident the club won't be forced into any decision with talks still ongoing between Arsenal and the player.
He said: “We will have to do that before the end of the season. I want to keep him in any circumstances.”
The Spaniard also admitted he sought out the Gabon international to find out whether he was focused on Arsenal amid talks of a move away.
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“I had two questions," he said. “One was he doesn’t want to do it or he cannot do it physically, so once I found out that physically he could do it, it was just about convincing him that he needs to do it every three days and he is doing that.
“He needs to feel fulfilled.
“When he does that, we show our appreciation as well of what he is doing because he can say: ‘I score the goals, I don’t need to do it’.
“But unfortunately we are not that good that we can allow a few players not to do that.”
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