Arsenal remain keen on signing Juventus midfielder Arthur Melo – but boss Massimiliano Allegri fancies sending him to Roma in a swap for Nicolo Zaniolo.
Edu spent much of January trying to bring in a new midfielder to bolster Mikel Arteta’s squad but it just didn’t happen.
More options are needed to challenge Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka, and that pursuit will surely continue this summer.
The top January target was Edu’s fellow Brazilian Arthur, who had found first-team football a little hard to come by with Juventus.
The Athletic claimed that Edu had struck an 18-month loan deal with Juve, taking Arthur to Arsenal temporarily with a £33.5million permanent option.
That would have been a major discount on the £66million Juventus paid to sign Arthur from Barcelona back in 2020.
However, that report claimed that Arsenal vetoed the deal, seemingly unhappy with the terms Edu had negotiated.
That left Arthur to stay at Juventus, but he is still fighting for minutes under Allegri.
Antonio Cassano has slammed Allegri for not using Arthur more prominently, calling the Brazilian ace ‘sensational’.
New claims from Calciomercato suggest that Arsenal will indeed make a new bid to sign Arthur this summer with Edu unwilling to back away.
The problem is that Allegri seemingly has other ideas.
Calciomercato claim that Juventus want Roma star Nicolo Zaniolo. Roma fancy taking Weston McKennie in exchange, but Allegri wants to offer up Arthur.
That means Jose Mourinho could end up signing Arthur after all. Mourinho fancied signing Arthur for Tottenham back in 2020 before missing out to Juventus.
Arsenal’s chase of Arthur sounds complicated amid this Roma swap suggestion, but Edu will hope his January groundwork over a deal can help win the race.
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