Arsenal lost out to Manchester City when it came to the January signing of Vitor Reis, after it was revealed the Gunners had identified the teenage centre-back as a target months earlier.
Reis wound up joining City, part of a �170m splurge from the reigning Premier League champions, after seeing their season go up in smoke and in need of a long-term rebuild.
City paid just shy of �30m to sign the 19-year-old from Palmeiras, ultimately stealing a march on Arsenal to get to the deal first.
Mikel Arteta's side didn't recruit in January. An opportunistic approach for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins came out of nowhere towards the end of the month and eventually failed, but The Athletic writes that long-term development players had been the main aim early on.
Reis is said to have been chosen as a "primary target" alongside 18-year-old Norwegian midfielder Sverre Nypan. Arsenal had scouts watch Reis in person during a Palmeiras game in early November, part of "extensive" monitoring, and were at that time viewed as his "most likely destination".
But the Gunners hesitated when Bukayo Saka and then Gabriel Jesus got injured, opening up an internal debate about how best to use the available budget. Arteta is said to have had concerns about spending as much as �30m on Reis when his immediate impact would be minimal.
City jumped in front of Arsenal during that period, wrapping up their capture of Reis on 21 January. But even without spending on the emerging defender, or indeed Nypan who has delayed his transfer decision until the summer no striker approach was successful either.
The possibility of landing Watkins, the subject of a lowball opening offer, was taken off the table by Aston Villa once Jhon Duran had been sold to Al Nassr. Ongoing interest in Alexander Isak remains unfeasible, with Benjamin Sesko not interested in leaving RB Leipzig mid-season.
Arsenal were also linked with former target Dusan Vlahovic, but that always seemed more speculative, based on his potential availability from Juventus and past interest.
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