Quantcast

Revealed: The 5 Players Arsenal Tried To Sign On Deadline Day

By on September 2, 2014

Arsenal may have landed Danny Welbeck on deadline day but according to reports, we failed to strike deals for FIVE other targets.

Many fans were disappointed not to see a defender or defensive midfielder arrive on Monday as well as a striker.

However, it appears Arsene Wenger did attempt to bring in more than one signing as the Express claims that we failed with our attempts to sign William Carvalho Winston Reid, Matija Nastasic, Ron Vlaar and Virgil Van Dijk.

Sporting Lisbon defensive midfielder Carvalho was strongly linked with a move to the Emirates all summer and the newspaper suggests we were in negotiations with the Portuguese club but failed to come to an agreement.

This ties in with reports that we brought you earlier that claimed we had offered €16m plus Joel Campbell for the 22-year-old, but Sporting wanted a straight cash deal worth €30m.

It was certainly disappointing not to land Carvalho – or any other defensive midfielder for that matter – but it was almost unbelievable that another centre-back wasn’t signed.

There were plenty of rumours surrounding Nastasic on deadline day and it’s understood the Serbian was our main target but Manchester City refused to do business with us.

The Express claim that with a deal for Nastasic off the table, we made a late dash to try and land a centre-back but couldn’t agree terms with Celtic for Van Dijk, West Ham for Reid and Aston Villa for Vlaar.

I will never understand why clubs leave it so late to try and do business, but Arsenal were totally negligent to leave bringing in a centre-back until the last minute.

We are now left with just six defenders until at least January, unless Arsene can find a defender to sign on a free transfer. Fingers crossed Per or Kos don’t pick any serious injuries……

7 Comments