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Arsenal fail with opening bid for South American midfielder

By on January 26, 2016

According to the Express, Arsenal have seen a formal opening bid rejected by Napoli for midfielder Jorginho.

The Brazilian has been strongly linked with a move to the Emirates over the past year and we were reportedly showing a keen interest in signing him last summer.

Our hopes of landing the 24-year-old suffered a blow when he signed a new two-year contract extension at the Stadio San Paolo in December.

But that doesn’t look like it’s put Arsene Wenger off as the Express are citing a report coming out of Italy that claims we’ve now submitted a formal offer in the hope of luring Jorginho to North London before the winter window closes.

The newspaper states that our opening bid has been knocked back and Napoli aren’t interested in selling this month but the Italians have indicated they may be more willing to do business in the summer once the current season is over.

Jorginho is contracted to the Serie A club until 2020 so they are under no pressure to sell and it would no doubt take a huge offer to tempt them in to cashing-in.

With Mohamed Elneny already arriving from FC Basel earlier this month and Francis Coquelin on the verge of making a swift return from his knee injury, I’m personally surprised to read that Wenger has put a bid in for another midfielder.

However, with Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky and Mathieu Flamini all expected to leave when their contracts expire in June, we will need to bring in at least one more midfielder in the summer so it would make sense to try and land Jorginho at the end of the season.