It sounds a bit unlikely that any club would be allowed to have a verbal agreement with the player, In transfer dealings they first need to agree a fee with the club the player is contracted to this then enables them to talk to the players agent about personal terms. if they have talked to the Lavia directly they have made an illegal approach to force a move or am I mising something?
Whole there is undoubtable interest in Lavia from a varirty of clubs this has all the hallmarks of a typical click bait story from football insider which as usual has no credibility.
It is an attempt to unsettle the player, with the hope from Arsenal in getting a cut price deal for him like Liverpool have been touting about too
I hope Saints have diamond hands and hold out for the appropriate fee of around £50M
From Arsenals point of view this is just to replace Parteywho they want rid of. Personally I think with Arsenals approach for Declan Rice now reportedly pushing £100M would be their priority, i don't think Lavia for around £50M too would make alot of sense for Arsenal for 2 players in the same position costing that much. It will surely be one or the other, if the Rice move fails then they will go for Lavia, lets not forget they also have Jorghino too.