Joan Garcia’s agent has confirmed Arsenal made a £21m bid for him on transfer deadline day, but Espanyol didn’t want to sell.

Throughout the summer transfer window, it was widely reported that Arsenal would make a move for Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia if and when they managed to sell Aaron Ramsdale.

Ramsdale’s move to Southampton eventually went through, but Arsenal’s bids for Garcia were ultimately unsuccessful.

Reports suggested Arsenal had offered €20m plus add-ons on deadline day, and the player’s agent Andy Bara has now confirmed that the offer was genuine. Unfortunately, Espanyol turned it down.

Speaking on Podcast Inkubator this week, Bara was answering a question about the importance of the values of players on the website Transfermarkt when he brought up the Arsenal bid.

“No one is really paying attention to that,” Bara said. “I have a goalkeeper in Espanyol, Joan Garcia, I’m his agent, and on Transfermarkt I think his value is €800.000.

“I had an offer from Arsenal on deadline day for €25m (£21.1m), we were negotiating the whole week about that but Espanyol didn’t want to let him go.”

Garcia himself must have been keen on the move to Arsenal, if his agent spent the whole week trying to negotiate a deal. But Espanyol were just as keen to keep him around.

Reports in early September suggested that Arsenal were initially assured they would be able to sign Garcia for significantly less than his €30m release clause.

Yet once talks opened, it quickly became clear that Espanyol would only sell for the full clause.

‘Release clauses’ in Spain are actually buy-out clauses, and they require the buying club to provide the entire fee upfront. So both the value of the transfer and the payment terms were ultimately beyond what Arsenal wanted to offer.

The Gunners instead moved to sign Neto on loan from Bournemouth, but reports suggest they’re keeping Garcia on their transfer shortlist.