It might look on the surface that should Arsenal fail to sign Raphinha that comparisons to the hunt for Dusan Vlahovic earlier this year are fair. However, this is simply not the case and criticism of the club for missing out on the Brazilian should not fall in line with the now Juventus striker.
Arsenal had serious interest in signing Dusan Vlahovic in the January transfer window. This is the first difference, with the shorter winter transfer period allowing less time to complete deals and therefore a chase of a profile takes up a greater proportion of the time available compared to the summer.
If Arsenal have pulled out of the race for Raphinha having baulked at the price being offered by Chelsea, then they have given themselves over two months to sort a replacement. One month if, like me, you’d expect the priority deals to be done before the start of the season.
