Arsenal turned down a couple of potential signings in the January transfer window, rejecting Dries Mertens and deciding against signing Omar Elabdellaoui.

According to reports, Dries Mertens and Omar Elabdellaoui both could have joined Arsenal in January, but the moves didn’t happen for different reasons.

In Mertens’ case, he’s coming towards the end of his contract, and Napoli didn’t want to lose him for free. As a result, either the club or one of the player’s representatives made the decision to offer him out to Arsenal.

The Times claim the Gunners turned the offer down over the Belgian’s age. The club are trying to focus on younger players at the moment, whenever possible.

As for Elabdellaoui, Arsenal were actually the protagonists in that case. They made an enquiry with Olympiakos for the right-back, but didn’t like the price tag. Olympiakos also weren’t keen to sell to their Europa League round-of-32 opponent.

In the end, Arsenal decided to sign Cedric Soares instead. The 28-year-old joined on loan until the end of the season, with the potential for a permanent deal after that.

We’ll add these two deals to the ever-growing list of what might have been.