90min

Arsenal's plans for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins revealed

  • Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins subject of a late bid in January from Arsenal
  • Offer from Premier League title chasers fell well short of Villans' asking price
  • The Gunners expected to focus efforts elsewhere after Andrea Berta appointment

By Toby Cudworth

Ollie Watkins was the subject of late January interest from Arsenal
Ollie Watkins was the subject of late January interest from Arsenal / ANP/GettyImages
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Arsenal are not expected to follow up the interest they showed in Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins in January when the transfer window reopens.

With their Premier League title challenge looking strong, Arsenal chose to make a sudden late move for Watkins in January as they sought to bolster Mikel Arteta's attacking options – a decision they made before losing first-choice striker Kai Havertz to a season-ending hamstring injury.

The Gunners' offer for Watkins was originally thought to be worth £60m, but that was quickly revised to around £45m – a figure that fell substantially short of what Villa would have deemed vaguely acceptable.

Villa had no real desire to part ways with Watkins, who has 13 Premier League goals to his name this season after notching a career-best 19 in the 2023/24 campaign, and instead sold Jhon Duran to Al Nassr in a big-money move that helped ease their concerns over PSR.

Sky Sports state that Arsenal's interest in Watkins has now cooled, despite their need to sign a new striker being greater than ever. But their decision to back away from the 29-year-old isn't because they've decided against bringing in a new centre forward, rather they are focusing on other targets who can offer more longevity than Watkins.

Sporting CP's Viktor Gyokeres, Newcastle United's Alexander Isak, RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko and Wolverhampton Wanderers' Matheus Cunha are named as players of interest to Arsenal – all have been linked with a move to Emirates Stadium for some time but were never realistically going to leave their current employers in January.

All four are younger than Watkins, whose worst return in five years as a Premier League striker is 11 goals, and signing one is likely to be top of the to-do list of new sporting director Andrea Berta, who was recently confirmed as the replacement for Edu.

Arsenal also have work to do in regards to new contracts for existing players, with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhaes all heading into the final two years of their current deals.

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