By Pranav Shahaney

4th Jun, 2021 | 12:10pm

Arsenal and Aston Villa table £30m bids for Emiliano Buendia - Report

Arsenal and Aston Villa have reportedly stolen a march on Leeds United by tabling initial offers for Norwich City attacker Emiliano Buendia.

According to Football London, the Premier League duo made their first formal offer believed to be in the region of £30m.

The Gunners, who have been favourites to sign him, made the first offer, and it was soon followed up by one from Villa.

This will have come as a wake-up call for Leeds United as the Yorkshire outfit have also been keen on signing him this summer. [Foot Mercato]

Losing this battle

It seems that we have almost given up in our pursuit for the Argentine. A few weeks ago it looked like we were realistically pursuing the option of getting him to Elland Road, but the fact that we’re doing nothing while other clubs are making opening offers is a clear indicator that we’ve got other targets in mind.

This still will have come as a blow as Buendia is a player that would walk straight into our playing XI on the back of his best season as a professional player.

He is known for his creativity and movement but is also a finesse player with an ‘absolutely magnificent’ first touch as seen in this video shared by Sky Sports.

His ability to play in a variety of positions would have benefitted Marcelo Bielsa as the Argentine likes to make positional changes on the go during matches.

However, we’ll now be resigned to watching him play for one of our director competitors in terms of league finishes.

It’s also understood that Norwich are unlikely to try and convince him to stay. Speaking to BBC a while ago, their sporting director Stuart Webber said that they’re not scared of parting ways with their stars and will look to cash in as they want to build a team that can avoid getting relegated from the Premier League.

In other Leeds United news, View: Leeds fans will erupt if Orta signs new Raphinha – talks now ongoing with ‘phenomenon’