Real Madrid forward Marco Asensio reportedly turned down a move to Arsenal back in 2014, according to Guillem Balague.

Arsenal were rumoured to be interested in triggering Asensio’s release clause, in one of the more unrealistic links of the window, but Balague claims the Gunners did actually try to buy the Spanish international back in his Mallorca days.

The Spanish journalist told Sky Sports via the Express: “It’s been rumoured that Arsenal are interested. He’s a player Arsenal have looked at before he went to Real Madrid, which is a time to get these types of players.

“Now he’s at Madrid and he’s very happy to be at Madrid. It has been reported that his buy-out clause is £78m, actually it’s higher than that.”

Instead of joining Arsenal back in 2014, Asensio joined Real Madrid and went back on loan to Mallorca, then Espanyol, before finding his way into the Real first-team last season.

Even if Arsenal had managed to figure out Asensio’s actual release clause and trigger it, there weren’t many reasons for the player to leave Spain for North London. Real Madrid have one of the best teams in the world. He’s part of it right now and fully contributing.

Asensio scored 10 goals last season, a good tally for the young player in his 38 games. However, he already looks like doubling that this campaign if he carries on as he’s started. The 21-year-old has also managed four goals in the first five games of the season, including netting in El Clasico.

But the information that he already rejected Arsenal once, if Balague is to be believed, puts the final nail in the coffin of this deal. It seems to me that the player has a big future ahead of him. It doesn’t look like it will be at Arsenal.