Arsenal attempted to sign Leandro Paredes from Paris Saint-Germain back in January as Mikel Arteta searched for a new midfielder.
Eventually, the Argentina international rejected the Gunners, who turned their attention to a £12m deal for Jorginho.
It was Gianluca di Marzio who claimed that Paredes opted for a six-month loan to Juventus rather than a move to Arsenal, and that now looks to have been a foolish decision as Fabrizio Romano provides an update.
What’s the story?
Well, Juventus negotiated a €22m (£19m) option to buy Paredes in their loan agreement with PSG.
However – according to Romano – the Italian giants are unlikely to activate that purchase option, with the South American expected to return to Paris at the end of the season.
After rejecting a move to Arsenal and the chance to win the Premier League title, Paredes has only made five starts in Serie A, with his other ten outings in Italy’s top-flight all coming as a substitute.
Now, the 28-year-old looks set to end up on the scrapheap at PSG this summer.
Arsenal unlikely to resurrect Paredes interest
In our view, it would be a major surprise if Arsenal made another move for Paredes.
It seemed as if Arteta only wanted the Argentine as something of an emergency option, and with The Times claiming that confidence is growing over a summer move for Declan Rice, the Paredes ship appears to have sailed.
The Times add that Arsenal could also return to Brighton with another bid for Moises Caicedo after failing to sign the Ecuadorian in January, so it really does seem as if the north Londoners are focused on bigger things now.
If the Gunners do go on to secure the Premier League title ahead of Manchester City, the Juventus No.32 will surely be kicking himself when he returns to Paris.
In other news, ‘Exquisite’: Michael Owen delivers Bukayo Saka verdict after Arsenal beat Everton
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
