Jonny Evans could have topped off a good window for the Gunners.
Despite losing Alexis Sánchez to Manchester United, Arsenal have arguably emerged from this January window in a stronger position than they started it.
The business they’ve done has been solid:
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
- Mesut Özil signing a new long-term contract
They even forgot about another signing they made on deadline day.
However, these attacking signings are still papering over cracks. They’re still as vulnerable as ever at the back and are in desperate need of a defensive midfielder, as Tuesday’s defeat to Swansea showed.
Arsenal made a late attempt to sign Jonny Evans from West Bromwich Albion, who swiftly rejected the bid. West Brom are deep in the 10-team relegation battle that has engulfed the bottom half of the table and unsurprisingly don’t want to lose their captain and best defender in the last 10 minutes of the transfer window.
At 30 years of age, with nine years of experience on a league and Champions League winning Manchester United squad, as the rock of his international team, Arsenal were chancing their arm with a measly bid of £12m for the Northern Ireland player.
Evans is a good defender and Arsenal are still in need of even a half decent one. West Brom are in too much trouble to let him go for six times less than what van Dijk went for to Liverpool and, to top it all off, they valued him at £30m in the summer.
Arsenal tried to get him for 12.
