Arsenal Women are working to bring in a striker to bolster their WSL title bid after having a world-record offer for Lionesses star Alessia Russo rejected.
The Gunners are short on forward options after losing both Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema for the rest of the season due to knee injuries.
Arsenal bid over £400,000 for Russo on Monday but the offer was rejected by Manchester United, who are top of the WSL and reluctant to strengthen a title rival.
Russo starred for England in their Euro 2022 triumph, finishing the tournament with four goals. As well as Russo, Arsenal have also shown an interest in Lyon forward Signe Bruun.
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The transfer deadline in the women’s game is at 5pm GMT on Tuesday. International transfers, however, can be done up until midnight, which means Arsenal have more time to try and bring in Bruun.
Arsenal are third in the WSL, just three points behind United with a game in hand, and are wary about having a lack of firepower for the second half of the season.
Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall said earlier this month: “I used the word ‘prolific’ goalscorer and that is still my plan and a consequence of having Viv and Beth injured for the rest of the season is that we have lost a lot of our historical scoring contributions.
“Of course, we can work on ways where we can find that internally but my idea is still that we need to find someone external to help us with that.”
