The Catalan press won’t let got of their claim that Arsenal are keen on Arda Turan. That could be partly through necessity, with a move to China looking increasingly unlikely.
Barcelona would like to sell the former Turkish international, and there doesn’t appear to be a huge number of takers. Turan was excellent at Atletico Madrid, but has struggled to fully impose himself since moving to the Camp Nou.
At 30 years of age, and with Barcelona looking for €30m, it’s a rather limited market, perhaps an empty one.
Nevertheless, Mundo Deportivo, in their Thursday edition, once again report that Arsene Wenger’s side are keen on the player. However, the Premier League club ‘want to pay less than €30m’ for Turan.
That sounds fair enough to us, believing for a moment that Arsenal interest is genuine, but Barcelona want more. Turan is on a big salary, point out Mundo Deportivo, and he’s not even especially keen to leave Barcelona, so there’s unlikely to be a great effort from his side of a deal.
Barcelona are learning that signing top players who aren’t really needed, promising them the world, putting them on big packages, and then trying to dump them when it doesn’t work out isn’t a great plan.
Arsenal, for now, look to be a continually used prop in this saga.