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Bid submitted: Arsenal table second £26m offer, player keen on move

By on June 11, 2018

According to reports in Portugal via the Metro, Arsenal have returned with a second £26m offer for want-away winger Gelson Martins but Sporting Lisbon are holding out for more.

Unai Emery is continuing to overhaul the squad he inherited from Arsene Wenger and it seems our new head coach is looking to add some genuine width to the team.

Martins has emerged as a key target in recent weeks with reports suggesting Emery has identified the Sporting star as the man he wants to play alongside Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang next season.

The 23-year-old has become one of the most exciting young attackers in Portuguese football having scored 13 goals and provided 13 assists for Sporting in all competitions last season.

Speculation in the media last week claimed Arsenal had seen an opening £26m offer rejected with the Metro claiming that Sporting were holding out for a fee closer to Martins £53m release clause.

The publication is now citing a report from A Bola that claims Arsenal have gone back in with a second offer worth…..£26m – which has unsurprisingly been knocked back for a second time.

The report says Martins is desperate to leave this summer and has even threatened to terminate his contract after the players were attacked by fans at their training ground last month.

It appears Arsenal were hoping to use that threat to their advantage by putting the pressure on Sporting to accept their £26m offer but the Portuguese outfit aren’t backing down.

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Martins is believed to be reluctant to go down the route of terminating his contract to force a move as he’d favour a normal exit but Sporting may leave him with no option if they continue to knock back big-money offers for his signature.

However, even if we did manage to persuade Lisbon in to a deal, any transfer will probably have to wait as the winger is off to Russia to play in the World Cup finals after being named in the Portugal squad.