Arsenal pin hopes on January move after ‘vetoed’ late exit reason emerges
Arsenal will turn their attention to securing a last-ditch January deal after the reason why a post-British window move fell through surfaced, per a report.
The Gunners splashed out around £140m on six new faces this summer. Japan international Takehiro Tomiyasu was the last of the new faces to arrive, with his introduction recently tipped to spark a much needed tactical change.
But who Arsenal attempted to offload was arguably just as intriguing as who they signed. Joe Willock and Willian both left on a permanent basis, while a plethora of first-teamers including Reiss Nelson, Hector Bellerin and Matteo Guendouzi all departed via the loan route.
Recent reports have indicated the club had their sights set on sanctioning at least three more exits.
Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah were both for sale, though lofty demands prevented permanent exits in both cases.
And despite the British transfer window closing last week, interest in acquiring Mohamed Elneny emerged from Turkey. Besiktas and Galatasaray were both reported to be in the frame over permanent deals with the Turkish window open until September 8.
However, talkSPORT now claim deals with both Turkish sides have fallen through for the same reason.
They state Galatasaray president Burak Elmas ‘vetoed’ the move after the Egyptian midfielder ‘demanded a salary’ worth £2.15m per year.
That proved unworkable over the course of the proposed four-year deal and negotiations swiftly broke down. Besiktas’ deal has seemingly fallen through for the same reason.
Elneny, 29, is in the final year of his contract in North London. As such, it’s claimed Arsenal will attempt to move him on in January to prevent losing him for free next summer.
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“I wasn’t happy at Arsenal” – Willian
Meanwhile, Willian has opened up on his difficult spell at Arsenal, admitting that was ‘unhappy’ during his one-season stay at The Emirates.
Willian did not feature in any of Arsenal’s opening three games of this season. That then led to the club mutually terminating his contract by mutual consent on August 30, with the player walking away from around £20million in the process.
This allowed Willian to re-join Corinthians, the Brazilian club where he started his career. With that switch now officially confirmed, Willian spoke about his troubles in north London.
“I really thought a lot, together with my family and close people. Unfortunately, my time at Arsenal was not good, I wasn’t happy at the club,” Willian told TV Corinthians.
“I don’t need to go into details. But I wasn’t happy and I thought that returning to Brazil was the best option.
“I studied some other opportunities. But I wanted to return to Corinthians, to my home, to be close to my family. It’s the club that projected me to the world, revealed me. The right time to come back was this.’
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