Slim chance since AW is unwilling to meet the asking price. I do think Schalke is asking for more than 37m since its January, and so Wenger vetoed the deal.

Then again thinking that maybe the deal is agreed in principal, but Schalke dont want to go ahead with it since they didnt get a replacement (Holtby moving to Fulham instead, bet Levy blocked the deal so we wouldnt get Draxler).

You can 30 odd million like 7+8+8+7 over 4 years or you can pay 15 + 15 over two years.

Think that seems to be the sticking point

The Mail reckon Schalke want 45m EUR or more....

Wenger confirms we won't get Draxler in January. He will stay in Schalke till the summer

17 days later

http://news.arseblog.com/2014/02/schalke-arsenal-bid-big-for-draxler/

So the Schalke general manager confirms we made a big bid for Draxler and not the first bid we've made either, so am guessing that rumoured bid in the summer was actually true. I think we'll go in again for the final time this summer, with the buyout clause not being active in January was always going to be hard to convince them to sell mid-season.

Denied the Bayern Munich rumours as well, I'm not sure if they'd be in for him because they are well stocked up themselves.

so we've failed twice? what didn't we learn the first time?

They've got their valuation and we've got ours, it is right for the club to work within a budget and not pay over the top for players like him. If he's the finished article fair enough go the extra mile but clearly it will take him a few years to be top class and there is always a risk that might not happen. Not like he has been tearing up in Germany recently either but young players naturally have dips in form.

Claudius wrote:

so we've failed twice? what didn't we learn the first time?

We bid on the off chance that Schalke would take the money instead of running the risk of losing him to another German club in the summer, of course.

Draxler is not worth £37 million at any rate. If Wenger thought he was we would have offered it in January.

i don't think we should overpay. i think he's an enormous talent, but we need to be decisive. we bid last year. Schalke made it clear they want 37m pounds. unless we have good inside information that they were bluffing, we would have been better off chasing another striker this winter.

it reminds me a bit of the Suarez situation. we spent the summer chasing around a striker because we had poor information on what his release clause meant. you need to do your due diligence thoroughly

Probably hedging that he'll be cheaper if they miss champs league. My minimal knowledge of their situation suggests that they are in serious trouble if they fail to qualify.

Claudius wrote:

it reminds me a bit of the Suarez situation. we spent the summer chasing around a striker because we had poor information on what his release clause meant. you need to do your due diligence thoroughly

In this case we know he has a buyout clause but aren't willing to activate. It should be noted that no other club has come in activate it either so it might have put a lot of other clubs off, though Draxler himself was reluctant to move last summer so could be due to that.

Suarez situation was just a total mess up, then after our silly bid Liverpool refused to do business with us. Though they did try to sign Diego Costa who turned them down so might of been more willing to let Suarez go and negotiate if he had decided to join.

He's ridiculously overrated. Done fuck all to warrant a 37 million transfer tag. Very talented ofcourse but for that kind of money i would rather have someone who has established themselves in their own league. Draxler hasn't even had one high quality season in the Bundesliga yet. Ozil went for 12 million when he left Germany and that was after a couple of top seasons and a good showing in the world cup.

Özil only had twelve months left on his contract. Draxler just signed a new five-year deal.

Klaus, + that was 3 or 4 years ago when football transfer fees were probably 60 - 70% what they are now

Indeed. City and Real have wrecked the market for everyone.

Draxler is a very good prospect but in terms of what this team needs I'd rather Tello. He'd make those runs ozil loves