The man tipped to be Mikel Arteta's 1st Arsenal signing and what happened after failed transfer

Gabriel Magalhaes became Arsenal's first permanent signing under the leadership of Mikel Arteta in the summer.

Arteta took over from the sacked Unai Emery in December 2019 and had a January transfer window in which to conclude deals.

But the coronavirus pandemic tightened the purse strings and now permanent signings were made, although Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares did come in on loan.

Those two deal were made permanent in the summer, along with deals for Gabriel, Alex Runarsson and of course, Thomas Partey, with Martin Odegaard joining on loan from Real Madrid and Mat Ryan doing likewise from Brighton.

Mikel Arteta update on Thomas Partey

But there is a name missing from that list, a player who did not make the move, despite being heavily tipped to join.

Pape Gueye was expected to become Arteta's first signing as Arsenal boss, with a £5million deal mooted in February, after the January window closed, to be done ahead of the summer window.

However, the transfer never came to fruition.

According to reports in France, Arsenal were closing in on the signing of the Le Havre midfielder, having been in advances talks with the Ligue 2 side over a move.

So what happened instead?

Well, Watford thought they had won the race for his signature, announcing a £5million transfer in April, but that was short-lived.

Gueye had a change of agent, with Bakari Sanogo being responsible for the Watford deal, replaced by Pierre-Henri Bovis, who stopped the move from happening.

Reported by the Sun, Bovis said: "My client alerted me to some particularly strange conditions in which his former agent got him to sign his contract with Watford in January 2020.

"At this stage, I have the most express reservations on the validity of this contract."

Gueye did not join the Hornets and instead moved from Le Havre to French Ligue 1 side Marseille in July at the end of his contract with the Ligue 2 side.

The defensive midfielder has played 23 games for Marseille, scoring once. Arsenal made the decision to sign Partey instead in the end and were well out of the controversial circumstances surrounding Gueye.