'It seemed done': La Liga boss reveals Arsenal's failed Deadline Day move for talented young forward | OneFootball

Racing Santander boss claims the Gunners were in advanced talks to sign Pablo Garcia

Arsenal failed in a Deadline Day move to sign Real Betis’ Pablo Garcia before losing out to Racing Santander, the La Liga side’s sporting director has claimed.

From the outside looking in, it had seemed the Gunners enjoyed a reasonably quiet close to the transfer window on Tuesday night. Formalities over Gabriel Martinelli’s departure were notarised, Gabriel Jesus left for Barcelona, and Ethan Nwaneri sealed a loan move to Borussia Dortmund. There were links with Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez, but no bid materialised.

It appears the club may have had more irons in the fire than first thought, though.

It was well known that the club was keen to continue adding more attacking firepower to the squad into the final days of the window, and Garcia, Racing Santander’s right-winger, may have emerged as a late target.

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The 20-year-old Garcia endured an emotional end to the window himself as his boyhood club Real Betis sold him to Santander for just £4.3m, a deal which left the player in tears. Betis retained a 20 per cent sell-on clause.

He had also been linked with moves to Hull and Olympiacos, per The Athletic, and Santander’s sporting director Chema Aragon has now claimed his side beat out interest from Arsenal to secure the player’s services.

“It seemed like it was done with Arsenal, and then we came in too on loan,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday. “(On Tuesday) things changed, and what seemed to be a loan turned into a shared ownership deal.”

Seville native Garcia leaves Betis having represented the club since he was just six years old.

He cracked the first team last season, making 25 appearances but only managing two goals.

Despite his obvious emotion at leaving Betis, it has been reported he pushed to leave in a bid to improve his first-team opportunities.

It is not clear how prominent a role he would have played at Arsenal had a move gone through, as he would have started the campaign below Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke in the pecking order, as well as fellow summer signing Christos Tzolis.