7 transfer targets Arsenal could miss out on with Vinicius Jr set to stay at Real Madrid

Arsenal excited their supporters by making it known they wanted to sign Vinicius Junior this summer, but with the Brazilian star set to sign a new contract with Real Madrid, their interest will come to nothing.

Fresh from winning the Premier League, Arsenal made the ambitious attempt to try and lure one of the world's most exciting players to north London. Knowing Vinicius had entered the final year of his contract, they were willing to make him their highest-paid player.

It was a measure of their upward trajectory in recent years under Mikel Arteta's management that Arsenal thought they had a chance. The possibility of replacing Leandro Trossard with Vinicius on the left wing was certainly an enticing one.

Arsenal forced Real to act, with the Spanish giants increasing their offer to Vinicius to sign a new deal. It now appears very likely that Vinicius will stay with Real and enjoy a status close to Kylian Mbappe's.

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That leaves Arsenal needing to consider alternatives. Julian Alvarez is another high-profile target for sporting director Andrea Berta, who has good connections with Atletico Madrid, having left the Spanish side to join the Gunners. But it is believed that Alvarez has his heart set on a move to Barcelona, not a return to the Premier League.

And it is a similar case with other attackers. Yan Diomande was the hottest name on the market earlier in the summer following a stunning debut campaign at RB Leipzig which caught Arsenal's eye. Now, with the haggling all but done, Diomande is heading to Real Madrid for a club-record fee of €135million (£115.7m).

Liverpool pulled out of the race for the Ivory Coast international when Leipzig's asking price became clear. Andoni Iraola's side are understood to be pursuing Paris Saint-Germain's Bradley Barcola instead. He could end up costing over €100m (£86m).

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Arsenal considered Barcola, but are understood to be unwilling to go near PSG's valuation. The French giants are reportedly moving for Ajax's Mika Godts as a replacement for Barcola, landing another player who was on Arsenal's radar.

The Gunners also saw an offer rejected by Juventus for Kenan Yildiz earlier in the summer, with the Italian side unwilling to even consider selling the Turkey international, according to football.london.

Arsenal are among the sides with an interest in Marcus Rashford but, as desperate as they are to offload his £325,000-a-week wages, Manchester United don't want to sell to a Premier League rival. That could change as the window winds down, but Arsenal can hardly afford to play the waiting game.

While there are still 26 days until the summer transfer window closes on September 1, Arsenal have so far made little progress in their efforts to seal the blockbuster deal they crave for an attacker. The arrival of Bruno Guimaraes, in a £75m transfer from Newcastle, is imminent, and Christos Tzolis has made an impact in pre-season following a £34m move from Club Brugge, but there is still work to be done.

Arteta has publicly stated Arsenal's ambition this summer. "We are really active, trying to improve and evolve the team. That's clear," he said in a post-match press conference after facing Girona.

"We expect to have movements in the next few weeks, obviously, because we want to get better like anybody else. And you can just see it. The transfer market and our opponents, what we are doing, we won't sit still. And we are very ambitious in what we want to do."

Their ambition is not in question, with Vinicius and Alvarez clearly fitting the bill as elite-level targets. But that ambition has to be married with realism, because it won't count for anything if they end up empty-handed.