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- 28 minutes ago
Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd in BIZARRE battle for free agent
Tom Weber
- 25 Nov 2025 19:01 GMT
- 6 min read
News
Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd and more English clubs have enquired about AS Roma full-back Zeki Celik, according to a report.
The Turkey international is out of contract in the summer, and suitors are beginning to move for the right-back. Celik has been a regular for Serie A leaders Roma this season, playing at both centre-back and right wing-back in Gian Piero Gasperini's system.
The 28-year-old has made over a century of appearances for the Giallorossi since joining from Lille in 2022. Due to soon being available on a free transfer, Celik is viewed as a potential market opportunity by clubs.
Current ETV
Zeki Çelik
D, M (R)
Roma
Zeki Çelik
D, M (R)
Roma
ETV Range
€3M - €4.5M
Among his suitors are basically all of England's top clubs, according to a sensational report from TEAMtalk. It is claimed that the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City and Liverpool have all enquired about him.
The report emphasises that the interest is at an early stage and that clubs are simply trying to gather information about the right-back, but it would be quite bizarre if he were to end up at a top Premier League club.
Celik would not be an upgrade for elite English clubs
Consulting data from analytics firm SciSports, we can see that Celik would not be an upgrade for England's elite clubs, so there appears to be little sense in pouncing on this market opportunity, given that he also has very little resale value at age 28.
Arsenal are well-stocked in the right-back department with Jurrien Timber, arguably the best player in that position in the Premier League, and Ben White.
As for Chelsea, Celik would not fit the age profile of players the Blues are going for and, again, he would not be an upgrade on Reece James and Malo Gusto.
Regarding Man Utd, SciSports does believe that Celik is slightly better than Diogo Dalot, while he would be more naturally suited to a wing-back role than Amad Diallo.
However, the difference between Celik and Dalot is negligible, and the Turkey international suffers from the same shortcomings as his Portuguese counterpart. Attacking is not Celik's strong suit, so why would Man Utd sign him when they have essentially the same player already on the books?
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