ARSENAL have been put off making a move for Issa Diop over West Ham’s sky-high £60million valuation.
The Gunners are desperate to add some more talent to their centre-back ranks thanks to the situation surrounding Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi’s lack of form.
The French club captain, 33, refused to join his team-mates for their pre-season tour to the US.
Meanwhile, Raul Sanllehi and Co are aiming to offload under-fire Mustafi to Monaco in a near-£30m deal.
But Unai Emery immediately baulked at the price-tag slapped on Diop by Hammers chiefs and will look elsewhere.
Arsenal started the transfer window with just £45m to play with and have already spent all-but £1m of that budget.
Award winning journalist and writer who has worked as a stringer for a couple of acclaimed South Africa based German journalists, covered 3 Ugandan elections, 2008 Kenya election crisis, with interests in business and sports reporting.