Gunners to make second bid for Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio in January

Arsenal will try to sign Real Madrid winger Marco Asensio for a second time when the January transfer window opens, according to reports.

Cadena Ser (via the Sun) claim the Gunners had a £34 million bid for the Spaniard rejected this summer, because Carlo Ancelotti wanted him to stay and play a key role for the Merengues.

But the Star reports that Arsenal have not given up hope of signing the 25-year-old and will return to the table in January.

Asensio started the season on the bench but broke into the team in La Liga recently, scoring a hat-trick against Mallorca on his first start of the season last week.

He was an unused substitute for the Spaniards’ humiliating 2-1 Champions League loss to Moldovan minnows Sheriff on Tuesday.

Arsenal certainly aren’t being shy with the chequebook at the moment, after splashing out a club record £142m over the summer on new players, including Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard.

The latter came from Real Madrid, and having such a recent successful negotiation could help the north London club in their efforts to seal a deal for Asensio.

The Spain international was tipped for great things as a youngster but tore his ACL in a pre-season game against the Gunners in the summer of 2019, ruling him out for most of the season, before returning to score seven goals in 48 games last term.

Asensio enters the final year of his contract next summer, giving Arsenal a good negotiating position, and Mikel Arteta could use the promise of regular starts to tempt the youngster as he looks to get back into the Spain squad.

The winger was left out of Luis Enrique’s Euro 2020 squad and hasn’t featured for his country since November 2020, so he could be tempted to change things up at club level with the 2022 World Cup just over a year away.