Arsenal reportedly were ‘offered the chance’ to reignite their interest in Arthur Melo but they ‘declined’ before the midfielder joined Liverpool.
Arthur signing for Liverpool on loan from Juventus was one of the surprising deals to happen on deadline day.
The Spaniard and Dusan Vlahovic were consistently linked with Arsenal during the winter transfer window earlier this year.
Liverpool broke their transfer policy for Arthur Melo – but he could be a surprise hit
Just like with this summer’s fiasco involving Frenkie de Jong and Manchester United, the sagas involving Arthur and Vlahovic in January soon became dull.
Missing out on Vlahovic was a bit of a blessing in disguise for Arsenal as they ended up with Gabriel Jesus instead.
With Arthur, the club’s supporters will no doubt be delighted that he has moved elsewhere so that he is no longer going to be linked with them. Unless those tedious rumours kickstart once again next summer.
Liverpool moved to sign Arthur before the transfer deadline after Jordan Henderson picked up a hamstring injury.
Jurgen Klopp was insistent throughout this summer that he did not need a new midfielder but a late U-turn led to them bringing in Arthur.
But according to The Athletic, the Juventus man could well have become an Arsenal player this summer had events played out differently.
They state that the Gunners ‘were offered the chance’ to bring Arthur in this summer but they ultimately ‘declined’.
Along with Jesus, Arsenal have also spent big to sign Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira.
A priority for them was to sign a new centre-midfielder, but they did not end up signing one.
This was even with them bidding £25m for Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz on deadline day. He is out of contract next summer but the Villans were unwilling to let him go.
Instead of rushing around on deadline day, Arsenal could have spent around Youri Tielemans from Leicester City earlier in the window.
The Belgian international is also out of contract next year but none of Leicester’s rivals met his valuation before the window closed.
The Athletic add that Tielemans’ ‘character and quality is admired’ by Arsenal but they did not ‘directly approach’ Leicester about the signing.
They explain that Arsenal’s hierarchy ‘held some reservations about the physical and defensive aspects of his game’.
Tielemans is better being operated as a No. 8, a position currently occupied by Granit Xhaka.
But with two No. 6s in…
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