Liverpool accept world record bid from Arsenal for Olivia Smith

Tom Garry from the Guardian reports that Liverpool have accepted a world record bid from Arsenal for Canadian winger Olivia Smith. The fee is going to be in excess of the $1.1m Chelsea paid for Naomi Girma in January.

We had reported on the Arsenal Women Arsecast earlier this summer that Arsenal had interest in the player and would face competition from Chelsea, who had also made their interest known. Tom reports that several other clubs had made offers, we heard an NWSL club made an offer but don’t know which one.

Liverpool set a price of around £1m very early in the summer and were adamant they wouldn’t go below their valuation and clearly Arsenal have decided to meet it.

For what very little it is worth now, we had heard some suggestion on Wednesday that there had been a breakthrough in the pursuit of the 21-year-old winger and frantically spoke to some contacts but couldn’t quite bottom out the detail that Tom has. But we understand personal terms with the player are unlikely to be an issue and this deal should accelerate rapidly.

Smith joined Liverpool from Sporting last summer for £200,000 and enjoyed an excellent season on Merseyside. Arsenal are down to three senior wingers with the departure of Lina Hurtig and with Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord in the 29 / 30 age bracket, the club’s priority was to bring in a young, top class winger and Smith was always their top target.

Our understanding is that Smith was targeted before the Champions League Final and would have been the top target of the summer regardless of the result of the final, not least because the prize money for winning the competition was basically absorbed by the cost of travel and accommodation for the final itself.

The post Liverpool accept world record bid from Arsenal for Olivia Smith appeared first on Arseblog News - the Arsenal news site.