Real Madrid reportedly wanted to sign Gabriel Jesus in the last transfer window and they were one competitor Arsenal had for his signature.
The Brazilian was to leave Manchester City and piqued the interest of several clubs around Europe.
Arsenal won the race because Jesus had a passport issue that would not allow him to join Madrid, reports suggest.
He is now a key player at the Emirates, but Real Madrid has not given up on adding him to their squad.
Real Madrid have had a good season, but their main striker Karim Benzema is not getting any younger.
Real Madrid are now looking for a replacement for him and a report in The Sun says Jesus is still on their shopping list.
It claims the striker is one person Carlo Ancelotti wants to work with and Real Madrid could attempt to sign him again when this campaign finishes.
Their efforts will likely be turned down by Arsenal, but it remains unclear if Jesus would want to try a new environment.
Today was Jesus’s seventh game without scoring, a statement that, while true, also completely mugs him off. Jesus was arguably the best player on the pitch. He assisted two goals, created a third for Reiss Nelson, had seven shots on goal and more touches than any Forest player.
Arsenal are an immeasurably better and more coherent team when he is present. And so even to invoke the issue of goalscoring here is to risk lapsing into radio phone-in territory, to problematise a player who could scarcely be less of a problem.
But there is a genuinely interesting aspect to this debate, which is whether there is a way of measuring and assessing the contributions of elite forwards beyond the most simple and lumpen metric of them all. Jesus has started his Arsenal career with five goals from 15 games and the only remarkable thing about that is how in keeping it is with the rest of his career.
A goal just under every three games is roughly what Jesus averages wherever he goes, whether at Palmeiras (16 goals in 47 league games) or Manchester City (58 in 159) or Brazil (19 in 56). There is not – with the best will in the world – a Haaland or Kane-level goal monster in there. This is just what you get.
