?Arsenal have reportedly been hoping to hold out for a club to come in with a player-plus-cash deal for German international Mesut Ozil, however it looks increasingly more likely that the playmaker will remain in North London and play out the remainder of his contract.
Arsenal now face the issue of potentially losing their former record signing in the summer and getting absolutely nothing in return.
Calciomercato.com (via Metro) have reported that Arsenal were planning to try and strike a deal with Italian club Inter Milan that would involve Joao Mario going the other way.
Inter manager Luciano Spalletti is refusing to entertain the prospect of a move, with Mario being a key player in his team plans for the rest of the season. The Portuguese Midfielder has so far made six appearances this season for Inter (three of those were as a substitute) and contributed with three assists.
On top of the fact that Spalletti doesn’t want to lose one of his star midfielders, Ozil is not a player who is extremely highly rated by the Italians, partly because he will likely demand a huge signing-on fee that will be infeasible for Inter to offer.
The five-time German Player of the Year has already rejected a £225k-a-week deal by Arsenal and has been said to want a signing on fee of approximately £6m, seemingly dismissing any chance of Inter Milan signing Ozil.
Let’