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Arsenal Failed With €16m Midfielder Bid On Deadline Day

By on September 2, 2014

Reports in Portugal claim that Arsenal failed with a late bid to try and land Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho on transfer deadline day.

Fans were crying out for Arsene Wenger to bring in a powerful defensive midfielder and Carvalho was touted a key target throughout the summer.

It appears we finally made our move on deadline day with Portuguese paper Abola claiming that we offered €16m plus Joel Campbell for the 22-year-old.

However, Sporting Lisbon rejected the bid and insisted on a straight cash deal worth €30m, but Arsenal refused to stretch that far and we missed out.

The deal was complicated by third party ownership with an investment fund believed to own 40% of Carvalho’s economic rights, but I don’t think there’s any excuse for us not bringing in a defensive midfielder this summer.

If Carvalho was our No.1 target, then we should have moved for him weeks ago. He was available for €30m all August after Lisbon reduced the asking price and with Carvalho also capable of playing at centre-back, his signing would be filled two troublesome positions.

We could have sold Joel Campbell to Benfica for around €12m yesterday and if we add that to the €16m we were prepared to stump up in cash for Carvalho, we were just €2m short of Lisbon’s valuation.

Easier said than done I know, but this strikes me of a desperate late bid instead of the manager having a clear plan. With Welbeck signed, Campbell is going to have limited playing time so why not sacrifice him by selling him to Benfica in order to land a player who would have made a HUGE difference to the first team?

Even without selling Campbell, we easily have enough funds to buy Carvalho for €30m, so why not just get the deal done and give us a balanced squad that capable of challenging for the league. It’s sheer madness and I fear our failure to sign a defensive midfielder and/or centre-back is going to cost us this season.