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Arsenal director Edu Gaspar touched down on the club’s transfer activity so far and explained why the Gunners backed down in their pursuit of Brazilian forward Raphinha.
THE LOWDOWN: FAILED PURSUIT
It is no secret that Arsenal were on the hunt for a forward name to bolster their attacking ranks in the current transfer window. After the £45m acquisition of Gabriel Jesus, the Gunners were soon linked to another Brazilian in Leeds’ star Raphinha.
After Arsenal refused to meet Leeds’ sizeable transfer demands, the race to sign the 25-year-old soon became a three-way tussle between the Gunners, Chelsea and Barcelona.
In the end, Barcelona beat all other parties to the player’s signature, bringing a merry-go-round transfer saga to an end a fortnight ago.
Admittedly, Raphinha made it rather clear that his preference was Barcelona and has even spoken about his intent to join the Catalan giants on several occasions. The La Liga side made a move for the 25-year-old in January but it failed to materialize.
Arsenal were indeed the first side to ask about Raphinha’s situation this summer and while the Brazilian now plays for Barcelona, some fans think the Gunners could have signed the forward if they put in slightly more effort.
THE LATEST: EDU EXPLAINS RAPHINHA DECISION
Arsenal’s recent pull with Brazilians is strongly attributed to director Edu Gaspar, who has a good eye for talents in South America as well as a good relationship with his countrymen. Raphinha’s agent and former Chelsea and Barcelona star in Deco, happens to be close friends with Edu and the Arsenal director revealed that a quick chat convinced the Gunners to look elsewhere.
“People think we went in too deep about Raphinha, because Raphinha was everywhere,” Edu said.
“It’s fair we had a conversation with Deco because Deco is his agent and I have a good relationship, we are friends. I just said to Deco, ‘can you explain the situation to me for Raphinha?’
“And he was clear, he said ‘Edu, we have a good relationship, I’m not going to lie to you, his idea is to go to Barcelona because his dream is to go to Barcelona, and we [have been talking] to Barcelona since [a] long time ago.’
“Okay, thank you very much (Edu responded). If something happens, just let me know, because I can explore and understand the situation, if not, no problem and we carry on with our relationship.”
THE VERDICT: RIGHT DECISION
In retrospect, it made sense that Arsenal backed out on a player who clearly wanted to join Barcelona. The fact that Chelsea had a deal in place with Raphinha for weeks but he held out for Barcelona further buttresses the point.
Mikel Arteta famously claimed that he would only go for players that don’t need too much convincing to join Arsenal. With Raphinha, that would have been the complete opposite and with that, the club turned their focus to other targets.
