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Arsenal see £25m bid for Douglas Luiz rejected
Arsenal have seen a third bid worth £25m for Douglas Luiz rejected by Aston Villa and our pursuit is now over, according to David Ornstein.
Mikel Arteta had enjoyed an excellent summer transfer window having snapped up the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Olek Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira but it was clear we needed more depth in midfield.
The club were forced into action after Mohamed Elneny picked up a serious injury against Fulham last weekend. The Egyptian international has joined Thomas Partey on the sidelines while Martin Odegaard also picked up a knock in midweek.
Youri Tielemans has been widely touted as Arsenal’s main target, however, the club opted to snub the Leicester City man on deadline day and enter talks with Aston Villa to sign Luiz instead.
After seeing offers worth £20m and £23m rejected, The Athletic journalist David Ornstein claims Arsenal submitted a third bid worth £25m late on Thursday evening. The South American is understood to have been pushing for a move to the Emirates.
Villa have signed Leander Dendoncker from Wolves, so many assumed they had bought him as a replacement and Luiz would be sold to Arsenal.
Rejected
However, Ornstein says Arsenal’s £25m offer has once again been rejected by Villa and he suggests that our pursuit of the Brazilian is now ‘over’.
Luiz has just one year remaining on his contract and has made it clear he won’t sign an extension, so it’s surprising Villa have decided to reject a £25m payday and risk losing him for nothing in 12 months time.
The Midlands club are now left with four defensive midfielders, so they are overloaded in that area, and Luiz will no doubt be bitterly disappointed his proposed move to Arsenal failed to materialise.
The 24-year-old would have been a solid addition to Arsenal’s squad and would have given us another vital option in the middle of the park, so it’s a huge blow that we haven’t been able to get the deal over the line.
Arteta is now left with a small squad once again and we’re extremely light in midfield. But the concern this season is that we have to contend with Europa League football as well. In October alone we have 9 games to play, and we simply don’t have a big enough squad to cope.
Let’s pray we don’t suffer any more serious injuries, otherwise we’re going to be in trouble and our superb start to the season would have been for nothing.
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