Rumour: Bundesliga giants to steal Arsenal target Julian Draxler in the summer?

Julian Draxler

Arsenal were surprisingly inactive in the transfer window, signing only Spartak Moscow midfielder Kim Kallstrom.

Reports today will have further darkened the mood of any frustrated Gunners fans, with Bundesliga pundit Jan Aage Fjortoft suggesting that manager Arsene Wenger missed out on Schalke winger Julian Draxler as the German international was offered the chance to make a summer move to Bayern Munich.

Fellow Bundesliga journalist Raphael Honingstein also believes that Bayern have been watching Draxler, but was less sure that the club’s interest is concrete.

Draxler has been a long term target of the Gunners, with Wenger said to view him as the long term successor to Robin Van Persie, and was heavily linked with a January transfer. However, the move failed to materialise, leading former Blackburn striker Fjortoft to tweet that his sources lead him to believe that Bayern have entered the race for the winger.

Draxler reportedly told German TV that he had the opportunity to leave the club, but that a move was blocked by Schalke. Reports in England have suggested that this was due to Wenger failing to meet the German side’s asking price for the winger.

Honigstein corroborated suggestions that Arsenal’s interest in the winger had been concrete. He admitted that he had not heard of any Bayern bid for Draxler, but revealed that he had also heard that the German giants had been monitoring the 21 year old.

Re: Draxler Spent the last hours to “investigate” what happened to Draxler last days. Have talked to very informed people

— Jan Aage Fjortoft (@JanAageFjortoft) February 1, 2014

Draxler just been on Sky saying that he could have left, had great offers, but at the end Schalke-boss Heldt said no — Jan Aage Fjortoft (@JanAageFjortoft) February 1, 2014

My view. Based on my information. Bayern Munich managed to stop the Draxler-deal by saying “we take him in the summer”. — Jan Aage Fjortoft (@JanAageFjortoft) February 1, 2014

first thing to say about Draxler is that UK media were right in the sense that there was a concrete offer from him from Arsenal

— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) February 1, 2014

the fact that Schalke didn’t go public with it at all suggests to me that they would have sold for the right price.

— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) February 1, 2014

Bayern: have certainly looked at him, especially in the autumn, when Götze had a slow start. but I don’t know of any more concrete moves

— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) February 1, 2014