Arsenal were given “a firm no’ in bid to sign now-Man United star

Arsenal failed in a bid to sign Lisandro Martinez from Ajax this summer before joining Manchester United, Ajax boss Edwin Van Der Sar confirmed.

The Gunners were linked with a move to sign the defender during the transfer window, before eventually moving to sign Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City instead, while Gabriel Magalhaes was also being linked with a potential exit.

The Brazilian ended up staying put thankfully, and has gone on to sign a new long-term deal with the club after forming a new CB partnership with William Saliba this term, but our backline could well have looked very different had we succeeded with an offer to sign Lisandro.

Van Der Sar insisted that they rejected our efforts in hopes of keeping both Martinez and Antony, who also joined the Red Devils in August,

“It was our opinion they should stay for another year,” he told The Times of both Martinez and winger Antony, who eventually moved to United as well.

“We gave a firm ‘no’ to Arsenal when they came first for Lisandro; we fought hard to keep him.”

I struggle to image that we could have had such a bright start to the new season with Lisandro in our defence ahead of one of our other CBs, but he could well have been earmarked for a role at LB instead. Martinez has proven to be a strong option for Erik Ten Hag’s side, but for the price, we definitely come out winners after landing Zinchenko for almost half the amount Ajax received.

I certainly wouldn’t change any of our transfer decision from the summer, regardless of how any other targets are impressing, but either defender would likely have proved to have been good signings to be fair.

Would you trade any of our first-team players for Lisandro?

Patrick

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