Today brought some tough reading as an Arsenal fan, and I can’t help but feel frustrated with our club’s efforts.
Reports have emerged to claim that our club has been beaten by Aston Villa in the race to sign Emi Buendia, a sentence that shouldn’t come out of an Arsenal fan’s mouth, but we also learnt that we are lowballing Ajax on a deal to sign Andre Onana also.
The goalkeeper is currently under a playing ban for supposed doping, and is ruled out until February as it stands.
Onana has entered an appeal to the ban however, with hopes that he could well be allowed to return to action before that time, and Arsenal are claimed to be keen on his arrival.
With his ban in mind, our club is claimed to have tabled an offer for his signature, but Ajax are not believed to be entertained at present.
Castles told the Transfer Window Podcast: “I’m not sure they’re in the best position, and I’m not sure Ajax will let him go for a cheap deal, but Arsenal have made what is described to me by a friend at Ajax as a ‘very low offer’ for Andre Onana.
“They’re trying to take advantage of that drug ban, which is due to run until February, but Onana is challenging that in court and is hoping that he will be cleared to play again next season. Either way, you can understand why Arsenal are trying to get him.”
Arsenal appear to be testing the waters in the hope of securing Onana on the cheap before a decision is made upon his appeal, but the Dutch giants do not sound like they are close to any form of agreement as of yet.
This news emerging on the same day that we have supposedly failed in an attempt to sign Buendia tells me we simply have to prepare ourselves for an extremely rough summer of tight budgeting.
Buendia’s deal reminds me in a way of our decision to turn down a deal to sign Ngolo Kante from Leicester due to agents fee, only to pay more for Granit Xhaka’s arrival in the same window, and while Buendia doesn’t quite have the same reputation YET, I fear he could well have been a huge player for us moving forwards.
Patrick