Arsenal was on course to land their target to replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the cheap before Barcelona joined the race for his signature.
Arsenal is pursuing a deal for Gents Jonathan David in the summer and the Gunners apparently consider the Canadian a suitable replacement for their want-away captain.
Arsenal is struggling to tie down Aubameyang to a new deal and they want David to replace the former Borussia Dortmund man should they lose him in the summer.
Reports this week, however, claims that Barcelona has become interested in signing the attacker and that has reportedly driven his transfer fee up.
The Belgians would now reportedly demand more than £20 million for their prized asset, but that wasn’t the case before now.
Reports from the Express claim that if Arsenal had made their move for David before Barcelona became interested, they would have landed the Canadian for just £13 million because of the financial impact of the coronavirus.
David who has scored 11 times in just 12 games for the Canadian National team has also scored 23 goals for Gent this season.
The Belgians know that they will struggle to keep hold of their star man for long and they are prepared to cash in on him in the summer.
About a week ago,a scout claimed that he wrote about 40 reports to man utd about him but they didn’t bother having a look at him!