Torino sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has claimed that Arsenal (yes Arsenal) have lodged a £56 Million offer for one of their players.
The Serie A side have grown into a decent Italian team in recent seasons following their promotion from the second-tier in 2012, and sit just nine points behind the Champions League places this season.
Their form this term has been strongly helped by striker Andrea Belotti’s input, having scored 13 league goals so far, and currently sits one goal behind Mauro Icardi at the top of the goalscoring charts.
There appears to be some interest in his signature following his rich vein of form, but for some reason their chief has claimed that Arsenal have made an offer for him, but then stated a very un-Arsenal-like amount…
Petrachi 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.”
I would like you to know that I laughed when reading the supposed claim. In 2015 we were told that we had made a bid to sign Paulo Dybala, who has since joined Juventus, and reflecting on it I really wish we had…
Unfortunately people lie, but who knows, maybe Arsenal have completely changed their views on spending, and are now willing to spend the same fee Manchester United spent on Anthony Martial for a 23 year-old who is enjoying a purple patch at present.
Could Arsenal really be interested in Belotti?
Pat J
I dont believe Torino has the resources to turn down 56M. They can build a whole new team with that much money
I can see Arsenal offering them 20-25M at max – 56M is what Torino wants but this number can be negotiated down.
@ethangooner
Petrachi said:
“We received and refused a €65m (£56m) offer from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti, but it does not reflect the value of the player….”
Which means either:
1) we’ve bid more than your quote range of 20-25m OR
2) we did not bid at all. And Petrachi is only lying.
I can only imagine this is a joint decision between Wenger and Torino for them to release such a statement.
Torino benefit by getting this player in the limelight and drill some interest in him- lets be honest we have all youtube’d this player now lol- No doubt other managers will start looking at him too.
Wenger benefits as fans are thinking he is trying to buy players! Board are backing him etc.
He is a decent striker, very much a goal poacher, but really strange for one of their representative to come out with such a statement, which in fact arsenal is in more in need of a creative midfielder, more than a striker. I actually had him down on the list as a striker arsenal could go and get in the summer gone.
My take on it is that Torino are in need of some funds and are seeking attention from the big clubs the ones with money to spend, a Juventus, PSG or a Bayern may be interested, but using arsenal name at this time is ridiculous
Absolute crap! It’s just a publicity stunt to to get attention to the player and drive the value of the player up