With the deadline now passed, we’re going to bring you Arsenal’s deadline day, as summed up by David Ornstein.
The Arsenal Ornacle is generally considered to be second only to the club website when it comes to the reliability of Arsenal news. Therefore his account of how deadline day went down is the closest we have to what actually happened, and it happened as follows:
First, he revealed a few new pieces of information in the morning on Thursday. On Mustafi, he said that hopes of a move to Inter Milan or Juventus had collapsed, and that as a result the only significant Arsenal exit would be Lucas Perez, other than possibly Alexis Sanchez, who we’ll come to later.
…but Mangala wants Inter & chances raised by their Mustafi move collapsing. Meanwhile Mustafi to Juve hopes ended by Juve signing Howedes
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 31, 2017
Aside from unchanged Alexis Sanchez situation, only significant Arsenal exit today would be Lucas Perez leaving a year after joining #AFC
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 31, 2017
Meanwhile, Ornstein also confirmed that Leicester had made multiple bids for Calum Chambers, but that Wenger had changed his mind in recent months and after originally opening the door to his departure, now wanted to keep the young centre-back:
#LCFC had 2 bids ~£20m for Calum Chambers rejected by #AFC last night. Earlier in window #CPFC keen but quoted £27m & said no #DeadlineDay
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 31, 2017
Chambers told by #AFC end of last season no guaranteed place, door open, offers welcome. A month ago all change – Wenger wanted to keep him
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 31, 2017
So with Lucas Perez indeed departing for Deportivo, although only on loan in the end, this just left the matter of Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester City, and Arsenal’s aims to replace him.
According to Ornstein, there was an agreement for Alexis’ departure but it was conditional on Arsenal securing a replacement first, and since they couldn’t do that, Sanchez would now stay:
As others report #MCFC Sanchez bid over. Conditional agreement reached £55m+£5m but #AFC needed replacement. Lemar said no so Sanchez stays
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 31, 2017
Ornstein further expanded on this in his Facebook Live video for BBC Sport, where he told Conor McNamara: “They reportedly agreed a fee with Monaco of £92,000,000 – there are suggestions that it was Lemar who said ‘No’ to the deal, others are saying that actually, he said yes to the deal, but Arsenal didn’t feel that there was enough time to get the deal over the line.
“No Sánchez coming in at City, he was a key target for Pep Guardiola and he’ll be bitterly dissapointed, but not as disappointed as Sánchez who, I’m told, thought the deal was done and had already been telling those closest to him, that he would be signing for Manchester City.”
So that was it.
Without being able to secure Lemar as a replacement, whatever the truth behind the reasons why, Arsenal couldn’t afford to lose Alexis, and therefore had to refuse City’s move for him.
Overall a disappointing day but Arsenal can take small comfort in holding onto Alexis and Özil as they originally planned.