- Arsenal target Rice played his last game for West Ham
- Arsenal weighing up summer swoop for Pedro Goncalves
- Arsenal told to offer £250k-a-week wage package to sign Rice
- Arsenal closing in on a deal to sign Sacha Boey this summer
- Pundit urges Rice to join Arsenal over Man Utd this summer
- Arsenal submit offer to sign Ilkay Gundogan this summer
- Arsenal told to pay £40m to sign Leicester star Maddison
- Arsenal open talks to sign Man City star Joao Cancelo
- Arsenal learn price tag of midfield target Gabri Veiga
- Arsenal ready to accelerate efforts to sign Rice this summer
Arsenal Miss Out On Another ‘Target’ As Brazilian Ace Seals £21.5m Move
Brazilian attacker Bernard has today completed a £21.5m move from Atletico Mineiro to Shakhtar Donetsk.
The 20-year-old was strongly linked with a move to the Emirates last month and French newspaper L’Equipe even claimed he was due to have a medical with us after we had apparently agreed terms over a £21m deal.
However, the boss soon played down those reports and interest from the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham, Porto and Shakhtar emerged. Bernard’s agent began trumpeting for a move to either Porto or Shakhtar as they were seen as good stepping stones for his client, as he felt it was too soon for him to join a ‘big European club’.
Bernard posted a picture of himself in a London hotel earlier in the week which had many fans speculating that he could be here to complete a move to Arsenal, but it seems he was only in the capital en-route to the Ukraine where he’s now sealed a move to Shakhtar.
A statement on the clubs website read:
“Shakhtar Donetsk signed a five-year deal with Bernard.
“The transfer fee for the Brazilian midfielder, who previously played for Atletico Mineiro, is 25million euros.”
So another one bites the dust. He may not even have been a serious target for Arsenal and it could have just all been paper talk, but yet again we’ve been led to believe we were close to signing an exciting player only to see him move elsewhere.
Just 8 days until the start of the new season and we’ll be heading into the Aston Villa game with exactly the same squad as we finished last season with (except for Sanogo), in fact the squad is much weaker as we’ve sold a number of squad players and not replaced them.
Check out more Arsenal Transfer News
Let’s hope we see some movement soon, or this is going to go down as one of the most disappointing summers in recent AFC history.
Epicurean
August 8, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Congratulations Bernard. Gutted you didn’t decide to come join to the Arsenal. Donetsk are a great team and have some really good Brazillian players. Your totally going to Wow at the world cup next year! COYG!!!