Report: Arsenal rejects Palace's £16M Chambers advance

Arsenal has reportedly denied Crystal Palace's £16-million bid for Calum Chambers, telling the south London side to scrape together a few more quid for the 22-year-old centre-back, reports The Telegraph's Jeremy Wilson.

Looking to fill the void left by Mamadou Sakho's departure, the Eagles have reached out to Arsenal over Chambers' services after the thrice-capped England international enjoyed a successful season-long loan at Middlesbrough.

Arsenal appears willing to sell a host of fringe first-team players, but after the Gunners paid £16 million to Southampton for Chambers three summers ago, Arsene Wenger and Co. have warned the Croydon outfit that nothing short of £20 million will do. Arsenal is pushing for a permanent sale amid reports that Palace would be content with a loan plus option-to-buy agreement, Wilson adds.

Still on the rise of a promising career, Chambers is most comfortable at centre-back, but can also ply his trade as a defensive midfielder or at full-back, supporting Arsenal's valuation of the player.

Even with Wenger's concession that Arsenal will start the 2017-18 season with a back-three, Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Per Mertesacker, Gabriel, Rod Holding, and the versatile Nacho Monreal are preferred to the Saints academy product.

Chambers joins the likes of Mathieu Debuchy, Carl Jenkisnon, Lucas Perez, Kieran Gibbs, and Jack Wilshere as likely summer departures, with the latter two joining their Gunners mate as England hopefuls ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.