Aston Villa have already angered Arsenal once this summer, but they won’t repeat the feat with Emile Smith Rowe it seems.
The Villans broke their transfer record to sign Emiliano Buendia from newly-promoted Norwich City earlier this month.
According to Sky Sports, Arsenal were out-bid by the Aston Villa for the Argentine playmaker, who moved for £38 million.
Last week it was widely reported that Villa had seen a £25 million offer for Smith Rowe knocked back by the Emirates Stadium club [The Athletic].
Smith Rowe has been touted to sign a new deal in North London but it’s been going on for a number of months now.
But reliable Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano has claimed that the player himself is ‘100%’ going to sign a new deal, having already made his mind up before the summer even began.
He told his Here We Go Podcast: “Aston Villa are really in love with this player & want to try again for Smith Rowe but what I’m told is he is set to sign his new contract with Arsenal. Also before his holidays he was 100% convinced about going to sign the contract with Arsenal.”
Villa – move on
Dean Smith and Aston Villa’s hierarchy need to move on with this.
They aren’t going to be able to prise Smith Rowe from North London and the more they try, the more time they’re wasting when they could be making inroads toward signing his alternative.
Alongside Bukayo Saka, Smith Rowe is a very exciting academy prospect to come through at London Colney and even if the player didn’t want to stay, which he apparently does, Mikel Arteta and Edu wouldn’t be interested in a deal of any description.
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