Shock report reveals Arsenal had TWO Tottenham stars on 20-plus shortlist of summer targets
A shock new report has revealed how Arsenal would have turned to two Tottenham Hotspur stars if they had failed in their efforts to bring Ezri Konsa to The Emirates this summer.
The Gunners added five new additions over the course of the summer window, with Konsa arriving alongside Bruno Guimaraes, Piero Hincapie, Christos Tzolis and Illan Meslier.
While Arsenal also pushed for one more high-profile attacking signing, missing out on the likes of Morgan Rogers and Vinicius Junior after allowing Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli, they ultimately came up short.
And now BBC Sport‘s Sami Mokbel has revealed that Emirates transfer chiefs had drawn up a shortlist containing more than 20 players at the start of the window, including Rogers, Vinicius and Chelsea striker Joao Pedro.
Defensively, Mokbel adds that the Gunners were also monitoring Sassuolo’s Tarik Muharemovic, Como’s Jacobo Ramon and Konsa, who eventually signed in a £51million deal from Aston Villa.
It’s claimed Tottenham centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven had also been identified amongst Arsenal’s top targets, in the event they failed to land Konsa.
However, the report underlines that Spurs would have immediately rebuffed any approaches from their bitter rivals for the duo, with Sol Campbell famously the last player to make the controversial move back in 2001.
Romero ended up leaving for Atletico Madrid in a £34m deal, while Van de Ven has since signed a fresh five-year deal in the white half of north London and is the club’s new captain.
As for Konsa, he has played just 11 minutes of action for Arsenal to date, ironically against his old club Villa in a 1-0 win for Arteta’s side on August 31.
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No Arsenal transfer regrets for Arteta
Despite Arsenal’s failure to bring in a left-sided attacker or striker on deadline day, Arteta insisted he was satisfied with the club’s overall business in the transfer market.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” the Arsenal head coach told reporters on Friday when speaking ahead of Sunday’s clash with Chelsea.
“The outcome after can be different to what you expect but the intention is certainly there which is in my opinion what I value the most.
“It doesn’t depend on you only. I think Andrea [Berta, sporting director] is better, or Josh [Kronke, co-chariman], to talk about that [how hard those deals are to do], because I am not in those negotiations.
“They know much better than me. These are questions that are related to the market and all aspects that I think it is better they speak about it.”
Arteta, meanwhile, also commented on why the price of some players has skyrocketed this summer, adding: “I’m sure that when this happens, it is because there has been an analysis behind it that this is going to be sustainable and other resources will appear, or the valuation of every player will be then much higher and it will be done in a sustainable way.
“But again, that is something for the Premier League and the owners to look at and evaluate.”
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