Journalist claims Arsenal were told to ‘give up’ on pursuing Yves Bissouma

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Arsenal were told to ‘give up’ on any idea of signing Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Yves Bissouma this summer.

That’s according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who told The Football Terrace that the Gunners were effectively pushed way from the Malian ace.

The 24-year-old may move next summer, but there is next to no chance of him leaving the Seagulls before next week’s transfer deadline.

“Bissouma is not leaving Brighton,” said Jones. “I still haven’t got an answer on why there is no chance of Bissouma leaving Brighton, but Arsenal were told… ‘just give up on this because he’s not going’, so there you go.”

“I’m told that basically, he’s at Brighton for this season. Next summer, yeah possibly, maybe Bissouma leaves, but very, very unlikely now unless it’s a ridiculous offer,” he added.

A concern over Arsenal’s pulling power?

It looked like like everything was pointing towards Bissouma – branded ‘top quality’ by Jamie Carragher – being Arsenal-bound this summer.

Football.London reported way back in January that Bissouma would choose the Gunners over any other interested Premier League club.

That report added that Bissouma was close Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel Magalhaes having been with them at Lille in France.

Football.London then claimed that Bissouma had told his agent Michael N’Cho that he wanted a move to boyhood club Arsenal… only for all of that to fall away.

Bissouma was right there, ready and waiting to sign for Arsenal before seemingly changing his mind and preferring to stay at Brighton.

Maybe Bissouma thinks he should now be aiming higher – a Manchester City, Manchester United or Liverpool.

Maybe Bissouma isn’t sure about his playing time at Arsenal with Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny all at Mikel Arteta’s disposal.

Arsenal did manage to lure one player from Brighton, but being told to give up on a player who seemingly wanted to sign has to be a concern for fans who want Arsenal to move forward as a club.