Speaking on the Que Golazo Podcast, Fabrizio Romano has been discussing Arsenal’s summer transfer window.
The Gunners were one of the biggest spenders this summer, bringing in the likes of Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, but they couldn’t quite plug one key area.
Indeed, Arsenal were incredibly keen to sign a new winger this summer, but they couldn’t get any deals over the line.
The north London club did bid for Raphinha, but the former Leeds man ended up at Barcelona instead, and according to Romano, failing to sign Raphinha was the Gunners’ biggest regret of the summer.
Arsenal’s Raphinha regret
Romano spoke about Arsenal’s interest in the winger.
“Raphinha was the top priority. I think the biggest regret of the summer market for Arsenal was Raphina. I mentioned the Brazilian connection with Jesus and Edu and with Raphinha it was the same. Raphinha was open to discussing with Arsenal at some point, but Barcelona were able to pay that money and that was his biggest dream since he was a kid. This is why it was impossible for Arsenal to compete with Barcelona,” Romano said.
Paying the price of failure
Sadly for Arsenal, failing to sign players like Raphinha is a by-product of their recent failures on the pitch.
It’s been years since Arsenal played in the Champions League, and sadly, a player like Raphinha is destined to play at the top level.
Luckily for Arsenal, these transfer near misses should be less and less frequent in the coming years. Mikel Arteta’s side look ready to establish themselves as Champions League regulars once again, and that should allow them to have a bit more pull in the transfer market.
Their chance to sign Raphinha has been and gone, but luckily, there are plenty of talented wingers out there for the Gunners to go after.
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