Arsenal & AS Monaco Fail With Attempts To Land Highly-Rated Portuguese International

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Duo said to have chased Sporting Lisbon goalkeeper this summer.

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Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon have claimed that Monaco were in for 25-year-old goalkeeper Rui Patricio this summer, with talkSPORT reporting that Arsenal also showed an interest in the talented shot-stopper.

Patricio has been with Sporting for his whole career so far, but has often attracted interest from other top clubs with some fine performances for the club and for the Portugal national side, for whom he has 23 senior caps.

Both Arsenal and Monaco were keen to find a new goalkeeper this summer, with Arsenal eventually landing Emiliano Viviano on loan from Italian side Palermo, though it seems that the big-spending Ligue 1 side were unable to add Patricio to their list of summer signings.

Backed by their wealthy Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, Claudio Ranieri’s side were able to welcome some big names to the club this summer, including Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez, the latter two also coming from Portugal, leaving champions Porto for a move to France.

However, Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho says that Monaco’s offer was not good enough for a player they deem to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

“He’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world. We had set the price for him, but the offer of Monaco was unsatisfactory. The point is that there are no other things to say,” he said.


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