Atlanta United have told Arsenal they will have to spend more than £11 million to secure a deal for Miguel Almiron.

After a few weeks of scouting the South American star, reports emerged which claimed Arsenal were all set to announce the signing of Almiron early in the January transfer window after the MLS side announce he was heading to the Premier League.

A fee of around £11 million has been what many media outlets believe will be the price, but now Atlanta President Darren Eales has claimed Arsenal will now need to break the back to secure a January deal.

He was quoted on the Metro website: ‘So there were two clues as to why that was total nonsense, one was Eagles, not Eales.

‘And the other was the suggestion of £11m because it would have to take at least triple that for me to even get out of bed and think about any bids for Almiron.

‘So everyone knew, as soon as they saw that figure, that it was a load of rubbish.’

Asked again if the £11m – or $14.5m – was too small a fee to land Almiron, Eales confirmed: ‘Oh yeah, way, way light, absolutely.’

Here is what we think on the potential deal for Almiron.

The Gunners are one of the biggest clubs in world football and are at that stage where they need to spend money on big named players in areas of the pitch that need improving, so news that ALmiron would be signing is not welcomed by many fans.

To make that move for the MLS to the Premier League is a massive step up and although Almiron has been showing great potential in America, he needs to jump 3-4 levels to even be on the same pitch as his team-mates.

So anything more than £11 million is a waste of good money.