It seems like an eternity since Arsenal were desperately rummaging around trying to find players to sign in the summer.
Then the transfer of Mesut Ozil calmed everybody involved at the club down a little. It was the perfect evidence that Arsenal were once more able to compete at the top end of the market.
One of the other bids that they made was for the brilliant young German Lars Bender. Arsenal made a reported bid of £18.5m for the German but were swiftly knocked back.
Bender’s club Bayer Leverkusen seemed adamant that they wanted to keep the player regardless of what Arsenal were offering.
Last week the player agreed to a new contract with Bayer Leverkusen which expires in 2019. But Arsenal remain favourites with bookmaker SkyBet to sign Bender in the winter window.
One could argue that this new contract was drafted to keep Leverkusen in a strong bargaining position for any future transfer. But Germany is having a renaissance in terms of football so there’s no reason why Bender would necessarily want to leave his home country anyway.
But there is an undoubted attraction to the Premier League around the world and Bender may well be tempted to make a move to one of the world’s super clubs at some stage.
Arsenal are still at shortsih odds of 6/1 with SkyBet to sign the young star in January so perhaps we haven’t heard the last of Bender to The Emirates.
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