Arsenal made a late bid to hijack Bayer Leverkusen's signing of striker Adam Hlozek this summer, according to the player's father, as Edu looks to bolster the Gunners squad this summer.
Mikel Arteta added Manchester City ace Gabriel Jesus to his ranks last week, with the Brazilian coming in in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. But with European football returning to north London this summer, there is an ambition to bolster the depth of the squad as much as possible, and another striker may well arrive before the start of the season.
Four new recruits have already been made at Arsenal this summer, with Matt Turner, Marquinhos and Fabio Vieira joining Jesus through the door. One player director of football Edu apparently attempted to bring in late in the day is Sparta Prague forward Adam Hlozek.
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The 19-year-old is one of Europe's most highly-rated young forwards and recently joined Bayer Leverkusen for around £11 million. Now, Hlozek's dad has revealed that Arsenal made a late intervention to hijack the deal, but it was a case of too little too late for the Gunners.
"There was Newcastle, they were somewhere else financially," Zbynek Hlozek told iSport.cz. "Lyon, Sevilla, Dortmund, Bayern, however, we wanted to give the next step a little sense so as not to jump to a mega-club immediately.
"When Leverkusen was almost done, we heard about a huge intervention from Arsenal. But the negotiation was already a long way down the line. Borussia Monchengladbach were the same. They spoke to Adam personally twice in the spring. They were excited about him, but they didn't have the financial strength."
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