Ollie Watkins in action for Aston Villa against Wolves (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Arsenal could reportedly have signed Ollie Watkins for around £60million this January, with the Aston Villa striker having been keen on the transfer.
The England international was the subject of a £40m bid from the Gunners, with Mikel Arteta having been keen on the deal, though it seems there wasn’t unanimous support for this move inside the Emirates Stadium.
That’s according to the Athletic, who add that Villa wanted more like £60m for Watkins, with the boyhood Arsenal fan also thought to have been keen to make the move to north London.
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Watkins has been a star player for Villa, and one imagines he could have been a big hit at Arsenal, who urgently need more of a goal threat up front as soon as possible.
This deal was made complicated, however, by Villa’s sale of Jhon Duran to Al Nassr, as it meant they no longer needed to consider offers for another key player in Watkins.
Ollie Watkins transfer looks like an opportunity missed by Arsenal
Arsenal will now have to wait until the summer to sign a new striker, but that could probably mean there’ll be better-value options available and more realistic.
Watkins might have been a tempting stop-gap option, but he’ll turn 30 later this year and that means he was never going to be a particularly long-term solution to the Gunners’ attacking issues.
Someone like Benjamin Sesko, linked as a likely target by the Independent, surely makes more sense for AFC, as he’s only 21 and could still have as much as a decade at the top level.
Watkins will no doubt be disappointed as this surely means he won’t get another chance to represent the club he supported growing up.
Still, he remains a key player in this exciting Villa side, so this could still end up being a really good season for him.
