Arsenal ‘to offer less than £23m’ for Luiz in January with Arteta ‘concerned’ about current star

Lewis Oldham
Arsenal target Luiz

Arsenal are reportedly planning to submit another bid for Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz in January after missing out on him in the summer.

The Gunners enjoyed a successful summer in the transfer market. Significant fees were splashed out to bring in Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira.

They did not secure all of their targets though as they were also looking to sign a winger and centre-midfielder.


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Arsenal were keen to sign Raphinha from Leeds early in the window, but they ultimately missed out as he joined FC Barcelona.

They also attempted to sign Wolves star Pedro Neto but their asking price made that deal difficult so late into the summer.

Belle of the ball Mykhaylo Mudryk is also admired, but an increasing number of clubs are interested in him.

Meanwhile, Arsenal were expected to sign Youri Tielemans from Leicester City as he entered the final year of his contract.

The Belgium international does still remain at the Foxes, but he is likely to leave next summer on a free transfer or in January for a reduced fee.

Arsenal looked set to move on without signing a new midfielder in the summer. But their plans changed when Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny suffered injuries.

The Gunners then moved to sign Luiz on deadline day. He is also out of contract next year but Aston Villa rejected a couple of bids from Arsenal.

Ex-Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor predicted earlier this week that Arsenal would attempt to sign Luiz in January:

“Arsenal might look in January and think ‘You know what, we’re third in the league, we’re second in the league, we’ve got a really good chance this season of finishing in the top four’ and they will have to go out and get one,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.

“Their fans were very upset when the window closed and they didn’t get one.

“Thomas Partey is always going to be injured, he’s very injury prone. [Granit] Xhaka’s been outstanding, [Albert Sambi] Lokonga is still up and coming but they need one more.

“It was strange that they didn’t fill that position, especially when they know Thomas Partey is not going to play a lot of games this season because he’s always injured.

“They need to definitely get one in during the January window.”

Agbonlahor may be right (for once) as The Sun are reporting that Arsenal ‘will make another move’ for Luiz in January.

This is because Mikel Arteta is ‘becoming increasingly concerned’ about Partey and the manager wants a ‘top quality replacement’.

It is stated that Arsenal are ‘likely to offer less than £23m’ after they offered that fee in the summer.

The London club reportedly feel that a ‘£15m bid would be more than reasonable’ given that Luiz’s contract is set to expire in June.