{"id":56365,"date":"2025-08-03T22:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T22:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56365\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T22:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T22:53:10","slug":"3-reasons-arsenal-stopped-trying-to-sign-sesko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56365\/","title":{"rendered":"3 reasons Arsenal stopped trying to sign Sesko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Sesko was long considered a top forward target, but three key issues ended hopes of a deal as focus turned elsewhere in the transfer market.\"LEIPZIG,Photo by Maja Hitij\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arsenal invested more than a year<\/a> tracking Benjamin Sesko<\/a>, conducting detailed analysis on his development at RB Leipzig and maintaining contact with his representatives. <\/p>\n

For long periods, he was regarded internally as the priority forward target. However, despite early groundwork, Arsenal ultimately abandoned their pursuit. It seems there were three main reasons for this.<\/p>\n

The first reason was financial. <\/p>\n

Leipzig were described by sources as \u201crefusing to negotiate lower than \u20ac90 million\u201d, and insisted on a substantial portion of the fee up front rather than in staggered payments. <\/p>\n

\"LEIPZIG,Photo by Maja Hitij\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arsenal considered that sum well above their valuation and too great a commitment for a player still viewed as one with potential rather than a proven elite.<\/p>\n

The second factor was the risk. <\/p>\n

Early conversations with Sesko\u2019s camp revealed wage expectations that would place him among the club\u2019s top earners. <\/p>\n

For a young forward with only two full seasons in a top-five European league and 21 goals last season (compared to Viktor Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s 54), the risk of immediately placing him under the pressure of leading Arsenal\u2019s attack triggered internal concerns. <\/p>\n

A source described \u201calarm bells\u201d over whether he was mentally prepared for the scrutiny that would come with being the focal point of the team and the price tag required to sign him.<\/p>\n

\"LEIPZIG,Photo by Maja Hitij\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The third was because of how slow it was moving. <\/p>\n

Arsenal reportedly became frustrated with the pace of talks, which some claims linked to \u201cproblematic agents\u201d. <\/p>\n

With no sign of progress and interest emerging from Manchester United and Newcastle, attention switched to Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, whose record of 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting CP and willingness to help make the transfer happen made for quicker and cleaner negotiations.<\/p>\n

\"SINGAPORE,Photo by Yong Teck Lim\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arsenal signed Gy\u00f6keres for less than Leipzig\u2019s valuation of Sesko. They also consider him more Premier League-ready and a better fit for Mikel Arteta\u2019s immediate plans. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sesko remains the subject of bids elsewhere, with Newcastle already seeing one worth just under \u00a370 million rejected as his future continues to be decided away from north London.<\/p>\n

Related Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Sesko was long considered a top forward target, but three key issues ended hopes of a deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[28983,3788,4501,9870,26696,403,99,5763],"class_list":["post-56365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-manchester-united","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-newcastle-united","tag-rb-leipzig","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-viktor-gyokeres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}