Arsenal
Arsenal’s £25m Attacker Bid Revealed – Will Wenger Get His Man This Summer?
A sporting director has confirmed that Arsenal made a £25million bid for an attacking midfielder last month. Find out who the player in question is here.
The January transfer window may have slammed shut but clubs will still be working hard behind the scenes at identifying targets for the summer, so we’ll bring you all the latest news, gossip and rumours. Today, Gooner Mac brings us the latest on the clubs pursuit of Julian Draxler.
Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt has confirmed that Arsenal did table a formal offer for attacking midfielder Julian Draxler last month, but it wasn’t enough to persuade then to sell, according to Spanish outlet AS.
Most Arsenal fans should be familiar with Draxler by now as he was strongly linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium during the January transfer window with reports suggesting we were in constant communication with Schalke over the player.
While Arsene Wenger claimed his interest in the 20-year-old was nothing more than an “illusion” created by the media, Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt was confirmed that we did make an offer but it didn’t meet their valuation of the player.
“We have received an offer for our player from Arsenal, but it was not enough,” Heldt is quoted as saying by AS
AS claim our bid was for €30m (£25m), which fell well short of Draxlers €45m (£37m) buy-out fee, and although the release clause doesn’t come into effect until the summer, it’s believed Schalke were willing to sell last month if a club met that figure.
While it seems Arsenal are keen to play down our interest in Draxler, Schalke are clearly happy to keep the whole saga in the public eye which suggests they are trying to gear up further interest in the attacking midfielder ahead of a potential bidding war at the end of the season. If they didn’t want to sell, they’d be doing everything they could to keep his name out of the newspapers.
I can certainly see Wenger going back in for him in the summer but it remains to be seen whether the Frenchman will be prepared to meet the £37m buy-out fee this time around. If he didn’t do it in January, why would he do it in summer?
You can see Wenger’s predicament. He paid £42m for Ozil, who despite his recent troubles is an established world class player, whereas Draxler is simply a hugely talented youngster so it would be a massive risk to pay a similar fee for him. But that’s what Schalke are demanding so if he wants him badly enough, we’re just going to have to pay it or move on to other targets.
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