Report: Tottenham killed Arsenal’s hopes of signing £66m player in January

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If rumours are believed, Tottenham Hotspur might’ve gone one over on Arsenal by signing Rodrigo Bentancur in January.

Bentancur is the only player to have joined Spurs on a permanent basis during the winter transfer window.

That’s still one more player than Arsenal managed to recruit during what was a disappointing month for Mikel Arteta and Edu.

One player heavily linked with a transfer to the Emirates Stadium for most of the month was Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo.

However, Arsenal failed to agree a deal with Juventus and according to Calciomercato, Tottenham then killed any hope that the Gunners had of signing the 25-year-old, who cost the Italians £66 million in 2020.

The Italy-based report claims that Bentancur – who was also at Juventus – joining the Lilywhites was effectively the final nail in their North London rivals’ pursuit of Arthur.

This is because both Arthur and Bentancur are midfield players and losing two in the same month was never an option.

Arsenal cannot blame Tottenham

Nope. Not one iota.

Bentancur didn’t join Spurs until deadline day and Arsenal were linked with Arthur weeks before that.

In other words, the Gunners had almost the entire month of January to get this over the line and presumably would’ve made Bentancur impossible to sign for Tottenham then.

However, Arteta and Edu failed to complete the signing and really, this is entirely on the Emirates Stadium outfit.

That being said, Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka are looking excellent in Arsenal’s midfield right now and, honestly, Arthur might not have even played regularly.