Arteta Finally Speaks Out About Douglas Luiz’s Failed Transfer Move

Arteta Finally Speaks Out About Douglas Luiz’s Failed Transfer Move. Mikel Arteta believes that Arsenal did a decent job of avoiding a last-minute addition on transfer deadline day.

On the final day of the summer transfer window, Arsenal made two official bids for Douglas Luiz. The talks continued on until late at night, but Villa decided not to sell their star player.

Despite having a shallow midfield depth in their team, Arsenal decided not to go for another alternative.
Arteta acknowledges that his team was aiming to strengthen its roster on Thursday.

Arteta on Douglas Luiz: “We tried… and at the end of the day, we have to bring in the players we feel are right – but we didn’t manage to do it”. ⚪️🔴 #AFC

Arsenal had three bids rejected, last one £25m 40 minutes before the Deadline — then decided not to overpay. pic.twitter.com/2Ehnq5cOUj

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 2, 2022

“Yesterday we could have done something if it was the right player, the right deal, and something we could afford,” the Spaniard said ahead of his side’s match against Manchester United

“Sometimes you have to react to something that happens, we would have done that, it was a real possibility yesterday. We tried but then we kept the discipline to say it had to be the right player for the team and the club.

“We have done a lot of things and still have a lot to do in this squad.You see the amount of departures compared to the players we have recruited. The club has done a phenomenal job and put everything on the table to bring the profile of players we want.”

Luiz moved to Villa in July 2019 from Manchester City, and since then, he has established himself as a pivotal player in the midfield. The Brazilian superstar played 34 league games for Villa last year as they finished 14th in the English top division.

The Arsenal boss added: “We did the business pretty early, but unfortunately in the last 72 hours Thomas [Partey] got injured in the same place as last time and then Mo [Elneny] has a long-term injury and we had to react in the market.

“We tried and at the end of the day we have to bring in the players we feel are right for the team and the club, but we didn’t manage to do that.”