Eberechi Eze’s imminent move to Arsenal may have come at the final hour, but his story with the club goes back much further.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Crystal Palace star is now poised to join the Gunners, who swooped to hijack bitter rivals Tottenham just as they closed in on their target.

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Spurs had looked set to bring Eze to the club after agreeing a deal worth around £67million, but their sworn enemies had other ideas.

As Arsenal stepped up their negotiations on Wednesday, Palace delayed, allowing the England international to weigh up his options.

And with Eze a boyhood Gunners fan, it’s understood that he went back on his agreement to join Spurs in order to seal a move to the Emirates Stadium.

talkSPORT can now confirm that a deal in principle has been agreed between Arsenal and Palace, which will see the midfielder sign for £60m plus £7.5m in potential add-ons.

While this may look like a last-minute steal, the full story goes back far earlier, with talkSPORT first reporting serious interest from Mikel Arteta’s side back in June, before personal terms were agreed in July.

Eberechi Eze’s Arsenal story

But for Eze, his dream move to north London will feel like an even longer time coming.

Long before the 27-year-old became a household name at Selhurst Park, he endured a spate of rejections as a youngster.

And the first of these came at none other than Arsenal, when he was left devastated after being let go as a teenager.

​Eze told the Independent in 2020: “It started at Arsenal, I was 13 [when I was released].

“That was the worst one. I remember crying in my room for a solid week, my mum telling me that it’s going to be OK but not being able to get over it.”

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Eze would join Fulham‘s youth system next, but a reunion with the Gunners soon reminded him of the heartbreak he had enjoyed.

He continued: “Then I went to Fulham and I was finally starting to enjoy my football again.

“We played Arsenal a few months later but, when I went over to shake the academy manager’s hand, I started welling up. All the feelings came back.”

What has Eze’s career looked like so far?

It’s fair to say Eze’s path to the top has been hard-earned.

His spell at Fulham ended in him being released, followed by four months at Reading, where he suffered the same fate.

Perhaps his most crushing blow came at Millwall, when he left at the end of his two-year scholarship after not being offered a professional contract.

x: @ebereeze10

Eze confidently predicted his rise to the top of football as a 16-year-old[/caption]

This ultimately paved the way for the Englishman’s big break, as Queen’s Park Rangers offered him a deal in 2016 as an 18-year-old.

After impressing on loan at Wycombe in the 2017/18 campaign, Eze returned to Loftus Road to make over 100 appearances for the club, scoring 20 times.

He was named in the 2019/20 Championship Team of the Year, alerting Palace, who swooped to sign him for £17m in August 2020.

Since then, he has established himself as one of the Premier League’s most entertaining players, with his eye-catching performances earning the playmaker a first England call-up in 2021.

Eze’s international debut came two years later, before he featured three times in the Three Lions’ run to the Euro 2024 final.

In the meantime, his displays in the top-flight have gone from strength to strength, with his final full season in south London capping off a fine five years in style.

Last season, he scored 14 goals in all competitions, as he guided Palace to their first ever major trophy, as he netted the winning goal in their 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester City.

And perhaps his meteoric rise is best summed up by one tweet from 2015.

“I swear I will make it, and when I do, they’re going to show this tweet.”

The boy was right.