Kevin Hatchard admits he can’t see Raphinha joining Arsenal this transfer window after they missed out on Mykhailo Mudryk.
Arsenal were dealt a huge blow when top target Mudryk was unveiled at Chelsea just hours before they kicked in the north London derby, which saw them move eight points clear at the top of the table with victory.
The Gunners were linked all month with Mudryk and the player was seemingly very keen on the move given his social media activity, but had his head turned and ended up at Stamford Bridge after Chelsea were more bullish in negotiations with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Mikel Arteta’s side have very quickly been linked with some other wingers including a familiar name in the form of Raphinha, who they attempted to sign over the summer, only to see him join Barcelona.
But Hatchard, speaking live on Sky Sports, can’t see the Brazilian winger calling time on his Barcelona career after just a few months.
Would you want Arsenal to sign Raphinha?
Yes!
No!
He said: “I’m not sure he would give up on this too early, it’s only a few months in. Would he really want to go back to the Premier League with his tail between his legs and accept the Barcelona move hasn’t worked?”
TIF Thoughts on links to Raphinha…
It’s clear that Arteta and Arsenal are big admirers of Raphinha, or they wouldn’t have lodged a bid for him over the summer and retain an interest in him despite a shaky season out in Spain with just eight goal involvements to his name.
Given that Arsenal were seemingly willing to go quite high in their pursuit of Mudryk, it suggests they have a lot of money now burning a hole in their pockets when it comes to signing a new attacker this month.
Despite a tough time of things in La Liga with just seven league starts this season, Raphinha is clearly still very talented, having been labelled as a ‘gamechanger‘ by his former Leeds teammate Luke Ayling, so that could well appeal to Arteta as he looks to make slight tweaks to his table-topping side.