Napoli reject €17 million Arsenal offer for Jorginho

Arsenal made a bold attempt to sign one of the better deep playmakers in Europe this week, making a reported effort to sign Jorginho from Napoli. Of course, taking one of Napoli’s best players away from them is never going to be an easy task, and the partenopei sent the Gunners’ offer right back to them with a giant “NO” stamped on it.

Jorginho, a naturalized Italian citizen who has been twice capped by the Azzurri senior team, is signed with the team for another three seasons, through June of 2020. In his three and a half seasons with the club, the Brazilian-born midfielder has gone from promising youngster to a reliable rock in the team, and to Napoli he’s worth far, far more than the paltry €17 million offered by Arsenal.

What this offer does prove, though, is that Napoli still have some work to do on securing their best players to new contracts. Marek Hamsik, Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Jose Callejon have all signed new deals in the last year, but others like Jorginho will need to be tied up to new deals that not only better reflect their value, but help give Napoli better leverage against more potential offers from other clubs.

In the meantime, though, we can all look at this offer from Arsenal and laugh. Jorginho actually does make a lot of sense as a player for the Gunners to target — his age, skillset, and position all fit what they need this summer quite beautifully — but €17 million is just nowhere near enough for Napoli to even remotely consider selling him. Not that Napoli would sell Jorginho anyways, he’s too important to the team, but if you are going to try to buy him, you need to do a lot better than that.