Arsenal won’t complete a heavily rumoured move for a €100m-rated left winger, though that’s not stopping the Gunners from pressing ahead with Gabriel Martinelli’s sale.
Arsenal have already signed one left winger this summer in the form of Christos Tzolis. However, the aim at the Emirates throughout the summer has been to sign two, with the second a higher profile player than the Greek.
Tzolis is viewed as the direct replacement for Leandro Trossard who joined Besiktas. The likes of Morgan Rogers, Bradley Barcola and Vinicius Junior were considered for the bigger catch.
Ultimately, Chelsea hijacked the Rogers move, and Vinicius used Arsenal to get a more lucrative contract extension out of Real Madrid.
Barcola, meanwhile, will be heading to Liverpool if he does leave PSG in the coming days, with the latest on that deal here.
As such, Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz is a player who continues to be linked with a move to north London.
Reports in Italy repeatedly talk up the move, while The Independent recently claimed Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, was ‘especially keen’ on signing the Turkey international.
However, transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, has consistently claimed Juventus have no desire to sell their best forward.
And developments over the weekend have put this story to bed once and for all after Yildiz suffered a serious foot injury in Juve’s Serie A opener that could require surgery to repair.
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Arsenal won’t sign Kenan Yildiz this summer
Reporting on his YouTube channel, Romano explained: “Injury for Kenan Ylidiz. So if there’s still stories on Yildiz and Arsenal… I always clarified to you, if you want to tell me do Arsenal like Yildiz? Of course they do, who doesn’t like Yildiz.
“But this is not news from this week, this is a story from April, May, June. Arsenal always appreciated Yildiz.
“But Arsenal knew that Juventus are not selling the player. That’s it, end of the story since May, so no chance.
“And now Yildiz is injured, he’s going to be out for some time, so forget about it.”
Despite Yildiz being off the table, Arsenal are pressing ahead with the sale of Martinelli to Al-Hilal.
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Gabriel Martinelli on course to join Al-Hilal
During his update on YouTube, Romano revealed Arsenal have lowered their asking price from £60m and are now prepared to sell to the Saudi side for a fee in the £50m-£55m range.
Crucially, Martinelli, 25, has now opened the doors to moving to the middle east, and this is now a deal that can be made and it’s advancing.
Arsenal could, in theory, forego signing a direct successor to Martinelli until a future window, with Eberechi Eze an option from the left.
Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi is admired just like Yildiz, but he’s also sidelined through injury right now after fracturing a metatarsal in pre-season.
Instead, Arsenal’s main focus over the coming days now appears to be on smashing the British transfer record by signing Julian Alvarez…
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