Arsenal have had a £56 million bid for striker Andrea Belotti rejected by Torino, the club’s director of sport revealed on Sunday.
Torino’s sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has revealed that the Serie A club received an offer from Arsenal to sign their star striker Andrea Belotti, before adding that the £56 million bid was rejected because it did not meet their valuation of the player.
Petrachi was speaking to Sky Italia ahead of Torino’s Serie A encounter against Sassuolo, and he said, “We received and refused a €65m (£56m) offer from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti, but it does not reflect the value of the player.”
Petrachi also maintained that Torino is confident that Belotti will stay with the club in the January transfer window, as he added, “Anyway, he is going nowhere for now. We want to enjoy him, then we’ll see what happens. We intend to keep Belotti and president Urbano Cairo signed this important buy-out clause. I think he’s worth more than they have offered.”
Belotti has enjoyed an impressive season with Torino this season, scoring 14 goals in 18 appearances for Il Toro. With 13 of those goals in the league, he currently sits second in the top scorers’ chart for Serie A.
2016 was also the year when Belotti was handed his maiden Italy cap. And he has done well in national colours as well, scoring three times in five appearances so far.
Belotti’s exploits through 2016 saw him become a subject of interest for several clubs, no less Arsenal who have been regularly linked with the burly striker. Recent reports indicated that Arsenal would have to shell out £50 million to land Belotti, but Petrachi’s comments indicate that that figure is nowhere near the amount Torino value him at.
Indeed, Belotti only recently signed a new contract with Torino that included a buyout clause worth a staggering £85.7 million. That amount is much more than what Arsenal are revealed to have bid and the figure could put off Arsene Wenger and force the Gunners boss to set his sights elsewhere for a striker.
Wenger, on his part, doesn’t seem to be facing any issues as far as his options up front are concerned, as Alexis Sanchez has been going strong in the centre forward role for large parts of the season so far.
Olivier Giroud has stepped up in that role in recent weeks, and he has scored four goals in four games to ease Wenger’s troubles. Danny Welbeck made a return to the first team fold after missing eight months of action with knee injury, and Lucas Perez is in the mix too.
So, it looks like Belotti is staying put at Torino and Arsene Wenger could be happy with the options he has at Arsenal for now.
