Arsenal given cryptic 'the time to sell' message over £25m transfer target

Arsenal have been received an intriguing transfer message over their summer target Joan Garcia. Towards the end of the summer transfer window, the Gunners were said to have made attempts to sign the Espanyol goalkeeper, offering the La Liga side a $20m (£17m) bid for his services.

However, as this figure did not reach the release clause of €30m, Arsenal’s bid was rejected and the Gunners went on to sign AFC Bournemouth stopper Neto on a deadline day loan deal.

This appears not to have signalled the end of the transfer speculation, however, with Espanyol’s sporting director Fran Garagarza pondering that the time to sell the 23-year-old could be ‘another time’.

Speaking in a detailed interview to AS where he asked about the Emirates club’s approach for the keeper, Garagarza said: “Well, with Joan it is obvious that his talent lies there, even when he had to renew his contract because he was not playing, but we believed in him.

“His day-to-day life was of a very high level. Obviously he took advantage of Pacheco’s injury and has taken the position. It is true that there is interest in him, but for us he is an asset.”

Garcia’s 2023/24 campaign was predominantly restricted to a substitute’s role and waited until March to make his league appearance of the season. He would go on to keep eight clean sheets and concede just seven goals from 14 league games and was vital in helping the Spanish side to secure promotion to La Liga.

With such interest in the star, especially from one of the England’s biggest clubs, it was posed to the sporting director that it could not have been easy to reject such proposals. However, Garagarza said he anticipates there to be even more growth.

“If you sense that there will be growth and performance, perhaps the current one could be a sale of a player without reaching completion”, Garagarza continued.

“For this exercise we have understood that Joan is an asset and that he is necessary to achieve the objective because he acts in a very specific position. We could not weaken there, we couldn’t. The interest in him is not going to stop. The time to sell Joan may be another time.”