Arsenal have been heavily linked with a move to sign Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic, but the Serbian does not want to join the Gunners.
That’s according to Fabrizio Romano, who revealed today that Vlahovic is not even answering Mikel Arteta and Edu’s calls.
The journalist said on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel: “Arsenal are more than interested, they approached Fiorentina two weeks ago about the price and everything but the player is not interested. I’m told that his agents are not even answering Arsenal’s calls.”
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Arsenal boss Arteta won’t like what Vlahovic is doing
Mikel Arteta’s convincing skills at Arsenal has proven to be very effective.
He successfully persuaded Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Folarin Balogun to pen new deals, and he also played a big part in convincing players like Martin Odegaard and Ben White to join us.
However, the Arsenal boss publicly claimed last year that he does not like persuading players to join the club. He boldly said that he only wants footballers who show that they really want to play for us from the very first conversation.
He told Ian Wright on Adidas UK’s official Twitter handle: “The moment we mention Arsenal, Ian you know what it means around the world. Everybody wants to come here and we have a really clear idea of what we are.
“It doesn’t need much convincing and if they do, for me it’s not a good starting point. If I have to convince a player to stay or to join us. To Arsenal? It holds me back a little bit.
“It has to be ‘what do we have to do? I want to play for that club and represent exactly the values the style of play that I want’. That’s the kind of emotion I want to hear at the start.”
Arteta’s comments suggest Arsenal won’t sign the Serbian
If Romano’s comments are anything to go by, Vlahovic is not even ready to speak to Arsenal. That means he’s not interested at the moment, which should send a clear message to Arteta and Edu.
The Arsenal boss, as he claimed himself, is not a fan of pushing players to join the club when they don’t want to. If his words are true, Gunners fans can forget about signing Vlahovic in one of the next two transfer windows.
The Serbian is a phenomenal striker. He has everything that a modern-day number nine needs, and multiple clubs will be pushing to sign him. Arsenal could really do with a player like him, but if he doesn’t want to come, Arteta will look elsewhere without giving it a second thought.
