Arsenal make double-your-money ‘offer’ to get marquee January deal over the line | OneFootball

Arsenal have made an offer to double Raphinha’s salary if he chooses to sign from Barcelona in January, according to reports.

The Gunners signed Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge in the summer transfer window in a deal worth around £34m – but the Greek international ended up being their only attacking signing of the summer.

Tzolis was brought in to replace fan favourite Leandro Trossard, who moved to Turkish side Besiktas, while Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus also departed to Al-Hilal and Barcelona respectively.

Arsenal spent much of the transfer window attempting to land a marquee attacking player with Morgan Rogers, Julian Alvarez and Vinicius Junior all in their sights.

Touching on their refusal to pay £117m for Rogers – who eventually joined Chelsea for that amount – a BBC Sport article explained: ‘Arsenal, it is understood, were given the opportunity to match Chelsea’s offer but refused, believing their £80m valuation was fair – but it does beg the question of whether Rogers would be a Gunners player now if Berta had acted sooner.

‘Ultimately, the failure to land Rogers arrived as the first of a series of blows to Berta in his efforts to deliver a top-class left-sided attacker for the team.

‘Arsenal genuinely believed they had a realistic chance of signing Vinicius Jr before he decided to sign a new contract at Real Madrid.

‘Berta and Arteta were all in on the Brazil icon. The club were prepared finance the deal too.’

Reports in Spain are now claiming that Arsenal and their Premier League rivals are ‘looking to lure Raphinha with a significantly higher salary than he currently earns’ at Barcelona.

The report adds: ‘Specifically, they are said to be willing to pay him double to bring the attacker, born in 1996, back to the Premier League, where he first made a name for himself. Joan Laporta and Deco are aware of this, which is why they are already working to secure his future.’

‘Because they don’t want to take any risks with the Brazilian star, whom they hope to secure to ensure his long-term continuity, with a well-deserved reward in the form of a salary increase.’

It is also claimed that Hansi Flick is not too worried about losing the former Leeds United attacker as he has ‘never shown any intention of leaving Barça, where he is very happy’.

Merson: Arsenal selling Trossard was a mistake

Arsenal legend Paul Merson reckons it was a mistake for the Gunners to sell Trossard in the summer transfer window.

Merson told Sky Sports: “I wouldn’t have let Trossard go, in my opinion, I think he’s a good footballer. I think he’s a clever player and has played in the big games.

“When you’re at the top, you buy players, you buy players and you stay at the top. The thing with what you’re saying about Arsenal’s forward line and the players they’ve got in their position, they’re very good in the Premier League, because teams sit back against Arsenal in the Premier League, so they haven’t got any runners.

“No one runs off the ball, Arsenal, the front players; you never see them going that way. But they’re alright, because teams sit ten behind the ball and they’ll have the guile and they’ll have the patience to break a team down.

“When you go and play PSG away and Bayern Munich away and they come and have a go at you, they won’t have that fear of that pace of Martinelli on the counter-attack, and that will cost them.”