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“We’ve refused £56m offer from Arsenal” – club confirms record bid

By on January 8, 2017

Torino sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has been quoted by Sky Sports News as saying that they’ve rejected a £56m bid from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti.

The Italian striker has caught the eye of Arsenal scouts after scoring 14 goals for Torino this season taking his tally to 26 since joining the club from Palermo in the summer of 2015.

The Mirror reported last week that Arsene Wenger had identified Belotti as a prime target and the boss looks to bring in a long-term replacement for Olivier Giroud while uncertainty over the future of Alexis Sanchez could also be a factor in the Frenchman’s pursuit of a new hitman.

It appears we’ve now formalised our interest as Gianluca Petrachi has claimed that they’ve turned down a whopping £56m bid from Arsenal for the 23-year-old striker and the Torino sporting director insists they have no intention of letting him leave.

Petrachi is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News:

“We received and refused a €65m (£56m) offer from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti, but it does not reflect the value of the player.

“Anyway, he is going nowhere for now. We want to enjoy him, then we’ll see what happens.

“We intend to keep Belotti and president Urbano Cairo signed this important buy-out clause. I think he’s worth more than they have offered.”

Belotti is contracted to Torino until 2021 so they are under no pressure to sell any time soon, however, I have severe doubts over the validity of Petrachi’s claims.

Firstly, Sky Sports claim that sources at Arsenal have insisted that no bid has been made for Belotti and I personally don’t think that the club would be sanctioning what would be a club-record bid when Wenger’s future remains unclear. What if we agreed to sign Belotti for £56m, Wenger walks in the summer and the new manager doesn’t want the player?

Anyway, even if we had tabled this bid, do you really think that Torino would turn down £56m?! No chance, so that’s the main reason I think that Petrachi is using our name to try and boost the players profile in the hope of getting some genuine mega bids for the striker.