Arsenal have just been given another reason to steer clear of attacker available for just £34m

Rafael Leao’s price tag is dropping by the week.

The AC Milan winger, once valued at over £80million and long linked with Arsenal, could now be available for just £34million.

On the surface, that looks like a bargain. A quick, direct left-sided attacker at a fraction of his previous asking price, available in the final weeks of the window when Arsenal still clearly need reinforcement.

They could be tempted to run a Raheem Sterling-esque deal late in the window, capitalising on a market opportunity.

But if Ruben Amorim’s assessment of the player is anything to go by, then signing Leao might go just as badly as Sterling did.

Ruben Amorim thinks Rafael Leao is bad for the AC Milan dressing room

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Amorim’s decision to push for Leao’s sale is not purely tactical, though those concerns exist too.

The report implies that the Portuguese winger isn’t suited to the half-spaces and tight movement Amorim demands.

The bigger issue is the internal dynamics. Leao is said to be viewed by Amorim as a source of negativity inside the Milan dressing room, particularly after publicly putting himself on the market.

Amorim has shared that assessment directly with the club’s officials, and if it were up to him, Leao should be sold.

Why this rules Rafael Leao out for Arsenal entirely

Mikel Arteta has built one of the most cohesive, harmonious dressing rooms in European football.

Culture is everything at London Colney. Players who cause disharmony, who create negativity, who put themselves above the group, are swiftly exiled.

Arteta has not been shy of imposing that, having gone through episodes with Mesut Ozil, Matteo Guendouzi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

It is why every signing since has been assessed as much on character and personality as on ability.

A player his own manager describes as a source of negativity is the antithesis of everything Arsenal stand for.

Regardless of the fee, regardless of the talent, Leao at Arsenal would be a cultural risk Arteta simply cannot afford to take.

The fact that Galatasaray would prefer to sign Gabriel Martinelli over Leao vindicated Arsenal’s long-standing reluctance — though Martinelli’s camp have since made clear he has no interest in moving to Turkey.

There were already doubts how Leao would fit in at Arsenal in a footballing sense, given his lack of defensive diligence. Now this dressing room report has made it definitive.

Some ‘bargains’ are not bargains at all.