Manchester City are closing in on the signing of Brazilian teenager Savio after seeing off competition from Arsenal.
The 17-year-old, who plays for Atlético Mineiro, is due to move to the Premier League for £5.5m plus add-ons.
Savio made his debut back in September 2020 but will remain in Brazil for the next few months if, as expected, the transfer is completed with the window currently shut in England.
With City's forward line already well stocked - and the Premier League champions having also recently raided South America to add Julian Alvarez from River Plate this summer - there is talk of Savio making an immediate loan move away for a first taste of senior football in Europe; the Guardian reports PSV Eindhoven are a possibility.
Arsenal meanwhile have endured a horrid time in the transfer market of late, failing to add any new faces in January despite their positive intentions.
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The Gunners now look set to miss out on another player with Savio edging towards a Manchester switch.
Dusan Vlahovic, formerly of Fiorentina, was the man most heavily linked with a move to the Emirates before he headed to Juventus rather than the Gunners.
Arteta claimed early in the month that Arsenal would have no problem attracting the top players.
Despite that no new signings were made even though there were areas of the squad that needed addressing.
Arsenal also allowed a host of players to leave without replacing them, which has left their squad light ahead of a top four battle, but Arteta is confident they made the right decisions.
He said recently: “We did what we believed was the right thing to do. The squad composition and contracts were catching up, (I need to) be fair to players who haven’t had a lot of minutes.
“We had a clear plan of what we can do but then it has to be doable. Edu and his team have done a great job. We are very clear we only want the best people and the best players at this club.
“When we are in a rush and the reasons to get a player on board are not the right ones we didn’t do it.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the most high profile departure with the club terminating his contract.
The striker had been frozen out in north London and the two parties decided to cut ties, which allowed him to join Barcelona.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles left on loan, heading to Roma for the remainder of the campaign, with Calum Chambers and Sead Kolasinac also exiting.
Arsenal are facing a mass exodus this summer with forwards Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah both out of contract and currently set to depart.
