Unai Emery appears to send four-word message to Arsenal after their failed bid for Ollie Watkins
Yesterday at 06:18 PM
In the lead up to both Arsenal and Aston Villa's Champions League tie on Wednesday evening, the Gunners' bid for Ollie Watkins certainly caused some commotion.
Arsenal have been searching for a new striker for some time now and Watkins is a player that Mikel Arteta is thought to have admired in the past.
But neither Arsenal or Villa fans would have expected a bid at the tail-end of January, even if Gabriel Jesus has succumbed to a long-term knee injury at the Emirates Stadium.
Villa were furious with Arsenal's bid for Watkins, not only because of the disruptive timing of their approach.
And either way, Unai Emery's side are not interested in selling their first-choice striker before next week's deadline, especially considering that Jhon Duran is set to depart for the Saudi Pro League.
Unai Emery sends firm message about Ollie Watkins’ future
Of course, whilst Arsenal were winning away in Girona on Wednesday evening, Watkins was doing the business for Emery against Celtic at Villa Park.
In perfect fashion, Watkins scored his first Champions League goal amid all of the noise around his future, proceeding to point to the Villa badge on his shirt during his celebrations.
Watkins looked quite overawed in the immediate aftermath of his goal, a striker who must have endured a very complicated 24 hours or so, and that perhaps contributed to a rare lapse for the striker when he then missed his penalty.
That being said, speaking to TNT Sports at full-time, Emery seemed to issue something a of hands-off warning to Arsenal amid all the reports of their rejected bid for Watkins.
Emery first spoke about Duran's situation, and then made his stance on Watkins' future very clear.
He said: "I don’t know if Jhon Duran is leaving but if he is, it is good news for us because he is leaving because it is good money.
"It is for the club, the players and the team. I don’t know if he will leave or not.
Emery then finished by saying: “Watkins is our striker.”
Arsenal may need to focus on their pursuit of Mathys Tel
With their Watkins bid rejected and Duran now set to leave Villa, the writing should be on the wall for Arsenal to start looking elsewhere.
Fortunately for Arteta, there was better news in the aftermath of Bayern Munich's Champions League tie on Wednesday evening.
Mathys Tel appeared to wave goodbye to Bayern fans at full-time, a striker who Arsenal are thought to be seriously interested in.
Arsenal are readying a bid for Tel according to reports, a superb young striker who is also wanted by Tottenham Hotspur.
Evidently there's still a lot more drama to come before Monday's deadline, a striker hunt that is heating up across the Premier League.
