Arsenal ramp up Ollie Watkins chase with significantly increased bid as Unai Emery makes Aston Villa stance clear

Arsenal are ready to increase their bid for Ollie Watkins after seeing an opening offer for the England striker rejected by an angry Aston Villa on Wednesday evening – but Unai Emery intends to stand firm over the player and with Mikel Arteta also issuing a small update on the chase.

The Gunners lodged an offer worth £60m for the 29-year-old striker on Wednesday, with the news breaking just hours before Aston Villa took the field for their final Champions League group game of the campaign. And with Watkins scoring a goal and comically missing a penalty during their 4-2 victory over Celtic that booked their place in the last 16 of the competition, he certainly had one of the more eventful days in his four-and-a-half-year spell at Villa Park.

Whether Watkins‘ time in a Villa shirt continues beyond this month, though, remains to be seen. The Gunners’ opening offer was swiftly – and angrily – rejected by Villa on Wednesday, with Emery’s side both upset at the timing of the offer and at the manner of it.

Furthermore, with Villa also understood to have agreed the sale of Jhon Duran to Al Nassr in a package worth £64m, it does seem unlikely that the Midlands’ giants will sanction the exits of both their star forwards in a matter of days.

All the same, Arsenal are reported by numerous outlets, including Sky Sports, to be prepping an increased offer for the 81-goal Villa star and that is expected to arrive on Villa’s desk sometime on Thursday morning.

It is understood the new offer could be as much as £10m more – £70m – for the 29-year-old.

Villa boss Emery, though, has sent the Gunners a strong message over their intentions for Watkins.

“I don’t want [him to leave],” he told his press conference after the win over Celtic. “It is good news to have an offer from other clubs or interest. It is good.

“But we want to keep our sporting objective through the players we have in the squad. Every player can be in the market in case it is good for the club, the player and the team but to get this deal of course we are going to be very demanding as well and Watkins is our striker.”

READ MORE ➡️ Sources: Arsenal positioned to hijack Mathys Tel transfer as striker’s stance on Bayern Munich exit is made clear

Arteta comments on Watkins as Gunners plan increased bid

Arsenal passed up the chance to sign a new striker over the summer window, instead deciding to offer Kai Havertz a run in the centre of their attack and with Gabriel Jesus as a backup.

But with the Brazilian having succumbed to a season-ending ACL injury, the Gunners have been left with little choice but to make their move.

Asked about the offer for Watkins on Wednesday following the end of Arsenal’s 2-1 win in Girona which confirmed third place in the Champions League group games, Arteta was giving little away.

He said: “I can’t talk about any of that. My confidence is that we have an amazing club with people always working to try and improve.

“Let’s see what happens.”

Watkins, a known Arsenal fan, is the Premier League’s ninth top scorer this season with 10 goals, including the equaliser last for Villa in their draw at Arsenal earlier this month. Overall, he has 81 goals and 35 assists from 201 appearances for Villa, who signed him in a £29m deal from Brentford in 2020.

The striker has also a decent record with England, boasting five goals in 18 games, including the winner in their Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands after he latched on to Cole Palmer’s pass to fire home from a tight angle.

However, he is not the only attacker Arsenal are chasing in the closing days of the window, having also made their move for Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel.

However, with Watkins their top target, Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol revealed an increased bid was imminent: “It is expected Arsenal will go back in with an improved offer.

“The story is a little bit complicated because Villa have two No 9s who are in demand.

“I am pretty sure Villa’s position will be that Watkins is not for sale and he has three years on his contract.”

Arsenal also chasing Bayern forward Tel.

In addition to Watkins, our transfer correspondent Fraser Fletcher was first with the news on Wednesday that  Gunners are also very much in the race to sign Tel from Bayern Munich.

The 19-year-old striker is also wanted by Chelsea, Man Utd and Tottenham – ensuring a frantic few final days of the window lie in wait.

And with the France U21 striker appearing to emotionally wave the Allianz Arena a fond farewell after his 62nd-minute substitution in Wednesday’s UCL win over Slovan Bratislava, it has now been confirmed by Bayern director Max Eberl that the teenager plans to leave.

“We spoke in December and Mathys said he wanted to settle down. Now he says he wants to leave,” Eberl said. “We have to think about whether we will do that and what we will do.

“He said that the playing time was not enough for him and that is understandable. However, we would have liked him to keep fighting.

“There is no bad blood. I can understand him. I have rarely had so many clubs call me about a player before.”

Ollie Watkins’ Villa career in numbers