Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been sharing his thoughts on the latest transfer rumour linking the north London club with a summer move for Real Betis midfielder Guido Rodriguez.
This comes after Watts uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he spoke about a number of talking points concerning the Gunners.
After it was recently reported in Spain (via The Sun) that Rodriguez, who apparently has a release clause in his contract for £68 million, is on Arsenal’s radar for the summer transfer window, Watts had this to say on the situation. (2.34) (3.15)
He said: “I haven’t heard anything myself if Arsenal are interested in Rodriguez but what I do know is they won’t be paying £68 million for him, that is what is released clause is at Betis.
“They might try, if they are genuinely interested in him, they’ll probably talk to Betis to try and get that price down to a much more manageable fee that the reports in Spain suggest that Betis could be open to selling because of the financial issues they are going through and every club in Europe is going through because of the pandemic, so potentially they could be up for doing some sort of a deal.
“It’s not going to be £68 million, I think that one you can scratch straight off the list if that is genuinely what they want and they want a club to hit the asking price that Arsenal will be looking at another midfielder and not looking at spending that sort of money on Rodriguez.”
Betis signed Rodriguez back in the 2020 January transfer window from Mexican side CF America for a fee of £2.7 million.
Since arriving in La Liga, the 26-year-old, who is currently valued at £16.2 million, has made 43 appearances for Betis in which he has managed to score three goals in the process (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments on Arsenal’s link with Rodriguez…
Given how Rodriguez has only managed to score one goal and is yet to provide an assist for Betis in La Liga after making 25 league appearances so far this season, perhaps Watts would be right to suggest that Arsenal should not bother trying to sign the Argentine if it would take a fee of £68 million to take him away from the Spanish club.
Would you be happy if Arsenal paid £68m on Rodriguez this summer?
Yes
No
Moving forward, if Arsenal do try and sign a midfielder in the upcoming summer transfer window, they should probably look at someone who would not demand such as hefty transfer fee seeing as the current pandemic has had such an impact on the financial side of football.
In other news: ‘Looks like it’s good news’ – Charles Watts drops injury claim at Arsenal