Arsenal were this week claimed to have had a bid turned down for Torino’s Andrea Belotti, and now Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian are supposedly weighing in with a huge offer.
The Italian has been in fine form this season, scoring 15 goals in his 20 appearances in all competitions thus far, and has supposedly become of interest to our club.
Their club’s Sporting Director Gianluca Petrachi claimed that they had rejected a £56 Million offer from Arsenal for their star striker, insisting they believe he is worth more, with his release clause sitting around 50% higher than our supposed offer.
He said: “We received and refused a €65m (£56m) offer from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti, but it does not reflect the value of the player.
“Anyway, he is going nowhere for now. We want to enjoy him, then we’ll see what happens.
“We intend to keep Belotti and president Urbano Cairo signed this important buy-out clause. I think he’s worth more than they have offered.”
Following Petruchi’s statement, Quanjian are said to have come in with an attempt to snipe the striker with a ‘mega bid’, backed with the offer of around £13 Million a year for Belotti to pocket.
Many Gunners fans will not have heard of the 23 year-old striker previously, but let me assure you he is deadly in front of goal, and he would be an exciting addition to our first-team.
That may not be possible if the Chinese side get their way however, but beyond that, the big-spending clubs from Asia may also begin to pose a threat to many other targets.
Our club has always been stringent in the transfer market, and bar unearthing a hidden gem, the interest from China may well hamper our transfer dealings for the foreseeable future.
We have been linked with the likes of Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alvaro Morata and Karim Benzema in recent windows, and at the rate these Chinese clubs are snapping up players, we may simply either be snubbed in favour of a big pay-day, or be priced out of moves due to the inflated market.
This simply highlights how important it has to be for us to tie Alexis Sanchez down to a new contract, especially as he has shown that he can play as our striker when needed, and not just play, but excel in the role.
Does the Chinese money in sport pose a huge threat to our club? Is there a player out there we could realistically replace Alexis with?
Pat J
I don’t think that China will become that big of a destination, many of the players they have bought are players nearing the end of their careers. The money footballers get already is huge so i’m not sure many players will be enticed by going and playing in a hugely inferior league by offers of stupidly high wages. It will become a richer version of the MLS imo. But we will see which players stay and which will leave.