Arsenal have been very much dragged into the Andrea Belotti rumour mill.
In November it was claimed by Gazzetta dello Sport that Arsenal had been willing to spend €35m on Belotti during the last summer transfer window. Gazzetta said Arsenal came up with the ‘richest offer’ of €35m for Belotti in the summer, but there was little time to consider the deal.
At that time the Gazzetta headline said ‘Belotti – Mr 50 Milioni’, and the reporting was that Torino wanted him to renew with a clause that would be applicable only for foreign teams of €50m or more.
To make it clear, they thought €50m for Belotti would be seen as a good deal for Torino.
It was all dragged up again on January 6th by The Sun. The English newspaper have had a remarkable number of high profile transfer exclusives over the past couple of weeks, and this one was credited to Emanuele Giulianelli.
Arsenal fans may remember the name Emanuele Giulianelli.
He’s the same guy who said Karim Benzema was set to arrive to sign for Arsenal on an August Sunday in 2015.
At the time of the Benzema claims it was easy to discredit, because Giulianelli had previously said Kostas Manolas had completed an Arsenal medical, Eduardo Vargas was joining Arsenal, and he’d also said Arsenal had opened talks to sign Edin Dzeko.
Not to forget him claiming Arsenal had agreed to pay Mario Balotelli €10m per season and that Demba Ba was an Arsenal player.
More recently, in March, the journalist said Manchester United were preparing a bid for Gonzalo Higuain that was higher than his buyout clause, and that Jose Mourinho had met Higuain’s brother and agreed terms on a £150k per week contract for the then Napoli striker.
The Sun’s claim was that Arsene Wenger is keeping tabs on Belotti but Arsenal would have to pay £50m, and wasn’t keen on that. Nothing much new there then.
What the English report has done is rattle the rumour cages in Italy.
On Sunday Gianluca Petrachi is quoted by Calciomercato ‘confirming’ a €65m offer from Arsenal. Calciomercato headline their article ‘Ds Torino: ‘No to 65 million for Arsenal Belotti, he’s worth much more’.
They then quote Petrachi as saying: “Yes, we received the offer but it does not reflect the value of Belotti. He’s a player who we would like to sincerely enjoy and if the president has given him such an important clause, I believe that in the end he is worth much more than what we offer today and what the team offered. Now we enjoy, and in the future see what happens.”
It’s worth making a couple of things clear. Petrachi was speaking to Sky Italia, who, in their article on the same interview, don’t use the exact same quotes. There’s no confirmation of an offer, but Sky say that in the face of a €65m Arsenal bid, Torino have made it clear they’d refuse it.
Sky have the video of the actual interview, and it’s clear Petrachi doesn’t name Arsenal himself, and doesn’t say ‘Si/Yes’ when it’s put to him. That’s been added for drama.
It’s the interviewer who puts the bid to Petrachi, who then uses it as an opportunity to talk up Belotti’s value.
This all seems to have got rather out of hand and Torino seem happy to use it to underline their own stance.
