This would be tough for Arsene Wenger to take.
Arsenal have been pursuing Porto striker Jackson Martinez for the last few weeks and it looked like they were the favourties to sign the striker, who has scored 92 goals across the last three seasons in Portugal.
But the Gunners have apparently come up short. The striker’s agent has reportedly announced that his client will join Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, after the Spanish club met Martinez’s £25 million release clause.
“It was finalised today,” Luiz Henrique Pompeo said in quotes reported by the Telegraph.
“Atleti are a very big club that has done important things in the league and in Europe. Jackson is going there to also achieve great things and to bring the best out of himself.”
Arsenal could have really done with a top-class goalscorer to help Olivier Giroud, who hasn’t scored more than 16 league goals since joining from Montpellier in 2012.
This is exactly what Wenger’s men are missing out on.