Arsenal are reportedly set to return to Roma after having a €39m bid for Kostas Manolas turned down during the summer.

I find it unlikely that we would spend €39m+ on a defender now that we’ve got Shkodran Mustafi but does the initial rejection explain why we ‘stopped’ Jack Wilshere from joining Roma on transfer deadline day?

The general belief is that Wilshere didn’t go to Serie A because he wanted to stay in the UK, which is what I’m more inclined to think but according to the likes of David Ornstein from the BBC, he didn’t go because we were asking for a far higher loan fee from the Italians than we were from Bournemouth. The Cherries are giving us £2m so goodness knows how much we apparently asked for from Roma.

Although we have since done business with Roma, loaning out Wojciech Szczesny for a second season, if they really did turn down such a huge amount of money for the Greek defender, the implication is that we were still bitter about having our money thrown back in our faces. However, it isn’t that professional to hold a grudge.

According to Sport Witness, if Roma sold Manolas before September 1st, his previous team, Olympiakos, received 50% of the amount paid, which may explain why – if true – the Italians rejected the bid.

So, there we go. Arsenal are reportedly returning to Roma for Manolas (who also apparently might sign a new contract with the Serie A club, just so he can put in a release clause, by the way), despite now having a defender who we paid a similar amount for and despite holding a grudge.

Chelsea are also said to be interested.

Sigh.

This is like a soap opera.