Arsenal's hopes of signing Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic this month appear to be fading fast.
However, the Serbia international could play a major role in ensuring that the Gunners are in a strong position to receive a welcome cash injection when it comes to negotiating a deal for a player sale.
There had been hope that Vlahovic would be joining Arsenal after football.london reported that the 21-year-old has been a target for the manager Mikel Arteta and with technical director Edu since the January transfer window opened.
Furthermore, some supporters had a brilliant theory that the striker was Emirates Stadium bound after his 'goodbye message' to the Fiorentina fans following last week's 6-0 win over Genoa.
And whilst that theory may turn out to be true, it's not the transfer that those Gunners supporters had been getting rather excited about on social media.
Instead, reports coming out of Italy, as per FourFourTwo, claim that Juventus have reached an agreement with Fiorentina to sign Vlahovic for an initial £67m fee plus bonuses.
This development comes after Fiorentina director Daniele Prade revealed the club were 'open' to the sale of the centre-forward, but only if certain conditions were met.
"Yes, we've received important bids for Vlahovic in January - we're open to sell. But we've never received any answer from his agents," he said in an interview with Sport Italia. "Juventus? Our doors are open.
"We wait for Dusan to decide, we need an answer.
"We need to understand what the agents and the player want to do. We are also willing to negotiate for the renewal but we have some important offers. We cannot afford to lose it on a free transfer."
So, with Vlahovic seemingly Juventus-bound, it's certainly a blow for Arsenal.
However, this reported £67m 'transfer agreement' could actually help the Gunners in the long-term as they might just benefit from Fiorentina receiving a big payday.
Of course, Lucas Torreira is currently on loan at the Serie A club and such has been his importance in their push for European qualification that reports in Italy, as per Sport Witness, recently claimed that a permanent transfer is on the cards.
As previously confirmed by football.london, Fiorentina do hold an option to buy the midfielder at the end of the season and it has been reported elsewhere that £15m is the fee required to secure his signature.
Therefore, one can assume that the Florence-based club will have no problem triggering that clause especially if they bank £67m from Juventus.
Alternatively, perhaps Arsenal could push for a slightly higher fee as Torreira's valuation is £18m via transfermarkt, but there is at least some good news from this whole Vlahovic transfer saga - even if the Gunners don't get their target.
With that said, missing out on Vlahovic does pose a problem for Arteta and Edu in their search for a striker.
With less than a week until the January transfer window closes, the pair will have to get a move on in order to bolster the forward options for the second half of the season.
Luka Jovic is the latest name to be linked with a move to Arsenal, alongside Alexander Isak and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but whether any end up at the Emirates Stadium after the deadline remains to be seen.
