Towards the end of the summer window, Arsenal made a firm attempt to sign Espanyol star Joan García. The Gunners tried until the end with a €20m bid, but the La Liga side referred to the goalkeeper’s €30m release clause.
Arsenal ended up signing Neto on a loan deal from AFC Bournemouth on deadline day.
Espanyol sporting director Fran Garagarza has given a detailed interview to AS, where he was specifically asked about Arsenal’s approach for the 23-year-old.
The goalkeeper was mainly restricted to a substitute’s role last season and had to wait until March to make his first league appearance of the campaign.
García kept eight clean sheets and conceded seven goals from 14 league games and was vital in helping Espanyol secure promotion to La Liga. AS pointed out to Garagarza that the stopper was able to leave for Arsenal in the summer.
“Well, with Joan it is obvious that his talent lies there, even when he had to renew his contract because he was not playing, but we believed in him,” he said.
“His day-to-day life was of a very high level. Obviously, he took advantage of Pacheco’s injury and has taken the position. It is true that there is interest in him, but for us he is an asset.”
The newspaper then suggested to the director that it wouldn’t have been easy to reject Arsenal’s offer for the Spaniard.
Responding to that, Garagarza explained: “If you sense that there will be growth and performance, perhaps the current one could be a sale of a player without reaching completion.”
“For this exercise we have understood that Joan is an asset and that he is necessary to achieve the objective because he acts in a very specific position. We could not weaken there, we couldn’t. The interest in him is not going to stop. The time to sell Joan may be at another time.”
On Thursday, the player said he wasn’t distracted after Mikel Arteta’s side made an approach to sign him.
