Fiorentina chief personally gives Arsenal green light to sign Vlahovic

Arsenal have been given the green light to sign Dusan Vlahovic if they can reach an agreement with the Serbian striker.

Fiorentina have declared they are ready to sell the 21-year-old and have 'important' offers on the table, but are waiting for the player to give them an answer.

The Serie A club are keen to sell Vlahovic in January, or to extend his contract, to avoid the forward heading into the summer entering the final year of his contract.

Arsenal are one of the teams who are willing to pay Fiorentina's asking price of £59million, but Vlahovic is undecided on a switch to the Emirates.

If they can agree on personal terms with Vlahovic, however, they will have the go-ahead to sign the no.9.

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Fiorentina admitted they are "open to selling" their prized asset as club director Daniele Prade demanded he makes up his mind.

"Yes, we've received important bids for Vlahovic in January - we're open to sell. But we've never received any answer from his agents," he said in an interview with sportitalia.

"Juventus? Our doors are open. We wait for Dusan to decide, we need an answer.

"We need to understand what the agents and the player want to do. We are also willing to negotiate for the renewal but we have some important offers. We cannot afford to lose it on a free transfer."

On the potential asking price required to unlock this transfer operation, the director of football added: "The valuation of Vlahovic is over €70million (£59million), our president has ordered us not to accept in exchange either technical counterparts or deferred payments."

Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta vows he will only sign players that will take Arsenal to the "next level" with a week left of the transfer window.

"It's what we planned, but the market is difficult, it's complicated," the Spaniard said.

"We knew that but it's a lot to manage and we have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are going to really help us and try to bring in ones that can take us to the next level.

"We are certainly trying, but I don't know if we're going to be able to do it. Let's see, it's not only our intention but a lot of facts that are needed to happen.

"Players that come here have to be able to take us to the next level. We already have a level, and we want to see much better standards than we already have, and that is how we're going to recruit."