Gunners may return in the summer though for the youngster.
Arsenal were not successful in their long-running pursuit of Schalke 04 midfielder Julian Draxler in the recent January transfer window because the north London club to meet the Bundesliga outfit’s asking price for their star man, according to Sporting Director Horst Heldt in the Daily Mirror.
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The Gunners have been chasing the Germany international for the past 12 months now, with the Premier League giants even sending their chief negotiator Dick Law to Gelsenkirchen last month to try and finalise a deal for the player.
However, in the end the two parties were unable to agree on a suitable price for the 20-year-old, with Draxler’s employers demanding a fee of €44.5m for the German wonderkid, a figure that Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger in the end considered too steep for such a relatively unknown player.
“It was a lot of money, but it wasn’t enough for us,” the sporting director told German TV channel SPORT1 regarding Arsenal’s offer.
And when Heldt was then asked whether Bundesliga and Champions League winners Bayern Munich also made an offer for Draxler last month, he replied: “No, definitely not.”