Arsenal flog flop Takuma Asano to Partizan Belgrade for £1m after three years and ZERO minutes played
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ARSENAL have flogged flop Takuma Asano to Partizan Belgrade in a £1million deal after three years at the club and ZERO minutes played.
The Japanese star, 24, has signed a three-year deal at the Serbian side with the £1m fee split into three separate instalments.
The Gunners have taken a hit on Asano, having spent £3.5m on the 18-cap international in 2016.
Since then, the striker has spent the majority of his time on loan in Germany.
Asano spent a dreadful season on loan at Hannover - where he failed to score a single goal in 13 matches - having been at Stuttgart the year before.
Arsene Wenger was the boss responsible for the signing of Asano in 2016 - when he described him as "one for the future".
The Frenchman claimed: "Takuma is a talented young striker and very much one for the future.
"He has had an impressive start to his career in Japan and we look forward to him developing over the next couple of years."
The deal even took Asano by surprise and speaking at the time, he claimed: “I was a little stunned."
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Meanwhile, Unai Emery is hoping to persuade Laurent Koscielny to stay at the club, despite snubbing the pre-season tour of the US as he looked to force through a move to France.
Bordeaux and Rennes are both thought to be keen on the Gunners' captain - who was forced to train with the kids.
But speaking after the 1-1 draw at Angers, Emery claimed: "Koscielny is a very important player for us and I don’t lose hope for him to be with us next season.
“I am speaking regularly with him and I am trying to convince him to stay with us.
“But at the moment his first idea is still to leave and this situation is making us change our ideas about the centre-backs.
“At the moment we have six centre-backs but Holding and Mavrapanos are coming back from injury and the situation with Laurent is difficult.
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“It makes a big difference to us if Laurent plays or not. The transfer window closes in eight days and we need to speak about what we do now.
“We want to be strong in the defensive line and we are thinking about how we can replace him.
“If we can sign one more centre-back it will only be if he is clearly better than the six we already have.”
