Arsenal lead Alex Scott transfer race despite Chelsea bid
Alex Scott’s future has dominated headlines in recent times, and there’s been a new update that just doesn’t quite add up.
The 22-year-old has impressed at Bournemouth and it certainly makes sense that we’re seeing him linked with so many big clubs at the moment.
In just the last few days we’ve had some key updates, with Sky Sports reporting that Scott has rejected a new contract at Bournemouth, while Chelsea have apparently had an initial £64m offer for the Englishman turned down by the Cherries, according to BBC Sport.
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Now the latest from the Daily Mirror is that Arsenal are leading Manchester United in the race to sign Scott for just £40m.
Latest Alex Scott transfer update doesn’t add up
There’s a lot that’s a bit puzzling about the Mirror’s report, so it’s possible that they’ll update it at some point to correct some errors.
Firstly, the obvious point is that there’s surely no way any club is signing Scott for £40m when we’ve had a reliable outlet like the BBC saying that Bournemouth have rejected £64m for him.
It’s also a bit puzzling that there’s no mention of Chelsea at all from the Mirror, which describes the saga as a battle between Arsenal and Man Utd.
While it’s easy to imagine those clubs also being interested, it seems strange to frame it that way when there’s such reliable information elsewhere that Chelsea are also clearly one of Scott’s biggest suitors.
Slightly conflicting claims on Alex Scott’s future
The report suggests Arsenal are in pole position to sign Scott, but it also mentions that the player is ‘worried about how much game time he will get for Mikel Arteta’s English champions’.
It may well be that Scott ends up choosing the Gunners anyway, but it seems strange to describe them as being so clearly in pole position when he has this rather significant doubt about joining.
Away from this report, there are also very strong signals that Arsenal’s top midfield target isn’t even Scott anyway, but Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes.
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The Times claim that club-to-club talks have started, so that seems to be Arsenal’s focus for their midfield right now.
Of course, it’s perfectly possible that AFC also keep the Scott deal alive in case Newcastle reject all offers for Guimaraes, but that still seems unlikely to mean they’re in pole position *now* to sign Scott, and certainly not for £40m.
It will be interesting to see what further updates emerge on this story, but for now it’s hard to make sense of the Mirror’s information being so out of sync with what everyone else seems to be reporting.
