Los Blancos have given up all hope of landing Suarez this summer.
Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger is now set to face stiff competition for the signature of coveted Schalke 04 midfielder Julian Draxler at the end of the season from La Liga giants Real Madrid, according to reports in the Mail on Sunday.
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The north London club have been keeping close tabs on the brilliant young Germany international for the past 12 months, with the Gunners even coming desperately close to luring Draxler to the Emirates during the recent January transfer window.
However, despite weeks of face-to-face negotiations between the two parties, right at the end of discussions the Bundesliga oufit suddenly decided to increase their original asking price for Draxler from £30m to a whopping £37m.
And as a result, Wenger decided to pull out of a deal for the player in the belief that paying that amount of money for a relatively unproven player would be a mistake, with the veteran French coach baking on Schalke reducing their financial demands in any case come the summer.
But that ploy may now backfire on Wenger after it emerged that the mega-rich los Blancos are now planning on switching their main transfer focus away from their previous first-choice target, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, towards Draxler after themselves being priced out of a move for the Uruguayan.