Arsenal ‘never wanted to sell’ 25-year-old as huge €200m valuation helped avoid Saudi ‘negotiations’
Arsenal had no intention to sell Gabriel Magalhaes this summer amidst interest from Saudi Arabia, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Gabriel joined the Gunners from Lille for around £23million in 2020.
He has established himself as one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League since making the move to England.
The 25-year-old played a big part in Arsenal’s successful 2022/23 campaign, playing 48 times across all competitions.
Rather bizarrely, Gabriel recently found himself out of Mikel Arteta’s starting XI, starting his first match of the new season against Manchester United on Sunday.
Arteta’s decision was even more difficult to comprehend given interest from Saudi Arabia in the Brazilian international.
It was quickly made clear that Arsenal had no intention to listen to offers for Gabriel, though the player’s stance was unclear.
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Now that the Saudi Pro League transfer window is closed and the player did not get close to leaving the Premier League club, it looks like he was not keen to make the move, even with the massive money on offer in the Middle East.
Fabrizio Romano has now revealed that Arsenal would not have considered offers worth €200million (£171.5m), such is the importance of Gabriel.
“Arsenal never wanted to sell Gabriel Magalhaes this summer; never a concrete option despite interest from Saudi, not even a negotiation between clubs,” Romano wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“‘Not even for €200m!’, this was the comment from sources close to negotiations replying to Gabriel-Saudi links.”
Gabriel might not have started any of Arsenal’s opening three Premier League fixtures but he did come off the bench on matchday one and two.
Speaking after the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on August 21, Arteta explained why Gabriel had not been included in any of his first two starting XIs of the season.
“It’s about the games we were expecting, that I was expecting, and how I wanted to defend and attack and what I believed was the best thing,” the Spanish manager said.
“He’s played in both games, he helped us to win both games for different reasons.
“He was really good today, he absolutely dominated the box when he came on and he’s going to play a lot of games. But that’s the decision sometimes.”
READ MORE: All the Premier League completed transfers in the summer window of 2023
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