Carlos Bacca wanted Arsenal move!
Arsenal’s summer transfer window dragged on with the Gunners seeming to fail over and over again in their attempts to sign some top quality players. Eventually Wenger pulled Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi out of the bag, but there was one player all summer who was waiting for Arsene Wenger’s call!
Arsenal were on the hunt for a new striker for a large part of the summer and were linked with various names from across European football. The likes of Vardy, Morata, Lukaku, Higuain and Lacazette all failed to materialise and that isn’t even naming all of them. All those deals reportedly broke down because of what Arsenal couldn’t either offer the player, or the player’s club, what they wanted. But one player, Carlos Bacca, was desperately waiting to hear from Arsene Wenger after he became aware of the Gunners intent to sign a striker.
Bacca was actually linked with the Gunners for a short period during the summer, but unlike the other links which spread like wildfire, the rumour surrounding the Columbian went quiet very quickly and suddenly he was linked to fellow Londoners West Ham. A move to the Hammers never materialised either and the player ended up remaining at AC Milan, however according to West Ham boss Slaven Bilic, Bacca turned down the opportunity to talk the Irons, to instead wait for an offer from Arsenal.
Bilic said: ‘I knew it would was difficult to buy him [Bacca]. We were not the first choice of the Colombian. He was waiting for Arsenal and Atletico Madrid then finally decided to stay at Milan, but we are very happy because we bought Zaza who a year ago was our first choice.’
Arsenal’s offer seemingly never came in and so Bacca ended up remaining with Milan, although of course any bids remain unconfirmed. From a personal perspective, I’m not sure if I would have preferred Bacca over Lucas Perez anyway, because although Bacca is arguably more experienced and more established at a higher level of European football, Perez did have a fantastic season last year and if he is able to replicate his 17 goal tally in La Liga in the Premier League, then he should have no problems fitting in with the Gunners.
Sadly for Carlos Bacca however, it clearly wasn’t meant to be.
By AH