Arsenal
Transfer News: Arsenal Made Late Bid To Sign International Centre-Back
Arsenal failed with a late bid to sign long-term target Jonny Evans after West Bromwich Albion rejected our £12m offer on deadline day
The January transfer window in now closed so it’s time to look at those deals that didn’t get over the line and those being lined-up for the summer. Today, Arsenal failed to land Jonny Evans….
Arsenal failed with a late bid to sign long-term target Jonny Evans after West Bromwich Albion rejected our £12m offer on deadline day, according to the Telegraph.
Arsene Wenger had used the winter window to revamp his attack after selling Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang coming in.
However, the boss was also hoping to strengthen his defence as Per Mertesacker is set to retire at the end of the season and Laurent Koscielny has been plagued by an Achilles injury.
We renewed our interest in Evans in January after being heavily linked last summer and moved in to pole position to sign the Norther Ireland international after Manchester City turned their attention to Aymeric Laporte.
The Daily Star reported earlier this week that Arsenal had submitted an opening offer worth £10m plus Mathieu Debuchy in exchange for Evans’ signature but it was immediately knocked back by West Brom.
It seems Wenger made another attempt to sign the 30-year-old on deadline day with the Telegraph claiming that Arsenal tabled an improved offer worth £12m for the Baggies skipper yesterday.
However, once again it fell short of West Brom’s valuation – rumoured to be nearer £25m – and after Arsenal decided against upping their offer, the defender ended up staying at the Hawthorns.
The report says West Brom felt our final offer was ‘derisory’ but that’s harsh considering Evans is the wrong side of 30 and has a clause in his contract that will allow him to leave for just £3m in the summer if the Midland’s club get relegated.
Evans is also facing up to a month on the sidelines with a hamstring injury so I think our £12m offer was reasonable given the circumstances, but understandably West Brom felt he’s worth a lot more than that to them as they battle against relegation.
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Arsenal will now have to wait until the summer to bring in a new centre-back and I hope we shelve our interest in Evans and go for a younger player who can be our long-term replacement for Koscileny.
