Club Brugge president Bart Verhaeghe says Arsenal are excited to have signed Christos Tzolis in the summer window.
Last summer, the Belgian club rejected a €32m bid from Crystal Palace. The decision paid off as he starred for Club Brugge last season, managing 22 goals and 29 assists from 52 matches.
This saw the winger attract interest from top European clubs. However, his priority was to join Arsenal and he secured a move to the Emirates for €40m plus bonuses in July.
Arsenal delighted with Tzolis signing
Tuesday’s edition of Het Belang van Limburg has published Bart Verhaeghe’s interview.
He revealed the discussion with the Gunners during the Champions League draw regarding Christos Tzolis.
The president mentions this when asked about Club Brugge’s decision to retain Nicolò Tresoldi and Joaquin Seys.
“That was the agreement. If they’re smart guys, they’ll look beyond the daily fluctuations of the transfer market. Last year, we also said that Tzolis had to stay. This summer, he was ready to go,” he said.
“And then, at the Champions League draw, I saw the Arsenal people, and they showed a tremendous amount of respect. ‘What a player you’ve delivered,’ they told me. ‘Excellent attitude, the best in the physical tests, and a great guy, too’.”
Change of approach paying off
Bart Verhaeghe is using the 24-year-old and Aleksandar Stanković’s sales, to the north London club and Inter Milan respectively, as examples to show Club Brugge’s strategy has paid off.
Het Laatste Nieuws have also interviewed the president where he talks about this and how excited Arsenal are with signing Christos Tzolis.
Verhaeghe explained: “[nods] ‘What a player,’ Arsenal said when they approached me after the draw. Christos had come out on top in all the tests.”
“That’s what we do here: deliver a ready-made product. Because we know what those top teams are looking for. We prepare our players for that kind of football.”
“Back then, people laughed at our holistic approach to nutrition, sleep, special glasses… Today, it’s all standard practice. We were the innovators from day one, and we’ll keep innovating.
“Today, we’re selling players to Arsenal and Inter Milan, two teams that have reached the Champions League final in the last two years. And at the same time, we’re recruiting directly from the Premier League, from a club like West Ham. 10 years ago, that was unthinkable.”
The Greece international has three assists from four matches for Mikel Arteta’s side.
