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Arsenal Table Improved £28.5m Offer For Long-Term Target – Reports

By on June 22, 2015

Reports over the weekend claim that Arsenal have submitted an improved £28.5m offer to Sporting Lisbon for midfielder William Carvalho after seeing an opening £20m bid rejected.

Carvalho is a name many of you will be familiar with as he’s been linked with a move to Arsenal in recent transfer windows with reports suggesting we were in talks with Sporting during the closing stages of last summer.

The speculation resurfaced again in January and with Arsene Wenger believed to be on the look out for another holding midfielder this summer, it comes as no surprise to read Carvalho’s name once again being linked with a move to the Emirates.

The Independent are one of several outlets who’re claiming that we’ve submitted an improved £28.5m offer for the midfielder after supposedly seen our opening £20m bid rejected.

However, even that may not be enough to persuade Sporting into a sale as the newspaper suggests the Portuguese giants want a further £8.5m in add ons to take the deal closer to the players £37m buy out clause.

Carvalho is highly-rated and Arsene is clearly a fan, but I have my doubts over the validity of these latest reports. The boss is reluctant to go over £20m for other holding midfield targets such as Morgan Schneiderlin so I’d personally be surprised if he agreed to pay close to £30m for Carvalho.

Plus, there have been reports in the recent past suggesting Sporting would sell for a lot less than the £28.5m they’ve supposedly rejected from us. If we had tabled a £28.5m bid I think Lisbon would bite our hands off.

So while it’s exciting to read about big-money bids for top quality players, I think this latest news is nothing more than idle speculation. Even if it was true, I’m glad our offer was rejected as I’d much rather we spent £25m to sign Schneiderlin than over £30m on Carvalho.

A new holding midfielder is certainly needed this summer as we need depth and competition for Coquelin but there’s no point paying over the odds for a youngster who’s yet to prove himself outside of Portugal.