Edu target expects to complete £46.5m deal within hours – but won’t be joining Arsenal

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Arsenal won’t be signing Raphinha this summer with the Leeds United star now expecting to become a Barcelona player within a matter of hours.

Raphinha has been a star for Leeds ever since signing from Rennes back on deadline day in October 2020.

The Brazilian immediately provided magic for Leeds and emerged as one of the top wingers in the Premier League.

That continued last season and Raphinha even scored a key penalty to help Leeds stay up on the final day of the season.

Yet with the World Cup around the corner, Raphinha is keen to kick on and he has long been expected to leave Leeds this summer.

Arsenal won’t be signing Raphinha

The fight for his signature has been going on for weeks, months even at this point.

The three main suitors have been Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona.

Barcelona have been linked for months now; they’re Raphinha’s dream move but the finances have been difficult for them.

Brazilian Edu wanted to lure Raphinha to Arsenal despite already having Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli out wide, whilst Chelsea entered the race after Todd Boehly’s takeover.

This saga has gone one way and then the other, but the constant has been a move to Barcelona – even after Chelsea seemingly agreed a deal.

Barcelona finally appear to have won the race with Catalan newspaper SPORT reporting that Raphinha expects to be a Barca player within hours.

Their report states that Barcelona will be paying €55million (£46.5million) plus add-ons to sign Raphinha – considerably lower than the €70million (£59million) Chelsea offered.

Leeds are allegedly happy with the deal though and will allow Raphinha to make his dream move to the Camp Nou.

Leeds have already secured a new winger in Luis Sinisterra and have left Raphinha out of their pre-season trip to Australia – both decisions pretty much hint that Raphinha is leaving sooner rather than later.

It will be a relief to get this saga out of the way and allow everyone to move on, but Arsenal and Chelsea will now have to go back to the drawing board.