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That is according to BBC Sport journalist David Ornstein.
Carrasco was identified as one of Arsenal’s main targets during the January transfer window.
Manager Unai Emery openly admitted the club could only sign players on loan deals following two surprisingly free-spending windows.
Despite seeking two players Emery was only granted one in former pupil Denis Suarez, despite efforts to sign Christopher Nkunku, Ivan Perisic and Carrasco.
The latter left Atletico Madrid, at which he established himself as a reliable Champions League-level player, in 2018 to join Chinese side Dalian Yifang, where he earns a reported £300,000 a week.
The 25-year-old’s situation was put on the back-burner, though, as Arsenal tried to recruit Perisic – but that deal fell through despite the club’s vigorous approach.
And Ornstein explained on the Arseblog podcast that Carrasco, despite initially being keen on the move to north London, was put off by the club’s lack of conviction in their offers.
“Arsenal reignited some interest that they started showing much earlier than Perisic, and that was Carrasco,” Ornstein said.
“That was shown at the end of December and then right at the beginning of January.
“It was proposed to the player, he was keen. I think he would’ve been happy to take a wage cut, although it still would have been a handsome salary.
“The problem was the loan fee that Arsenal suggested, at the beginning of the January window, to his Chinese club was nowhere near a figure that they would have considered in a loan market where fees are getting extraordinarily high these days.
“The fee for Carrasco was really low, you could say perhaps understandably at the start of the window.
“They then went quiet as they pursued other targets and had their own internal issues with the news that [head of recruitment Sven] Mislintat would be leaving.
“By the time it was looking like Perisic wouldn’t happen, they reignited the conversations around Carassco.
“But the offer, as I understand, did not change and so it was never likely to be considered by the Chinese club.
“Clearly, Carrasco also felt Arsenal weren’t particularly serious about him.”
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