Arsenal yet to approach Boca Juniors over signing Cristian Pavon

Boca Juniors are prepared to stand in the way of Arsenal's attempts to sign winger Cristian Pavon but admit they are yet to receive any approach for the Argentina international.

The Independent reported last week that the Gunners were lining up the 21-year-old to step into the void left by Alexis Sanchez, who is expected to leave north London either in January or next summer.

Argentine sports channel TyC Sports then claimed that Arsenal were prepared to trigger Pavon's £27.3m [$37m] release clause, but Boca are awaiting contact from the Premier League giants.

"For the moment, we have not received any proposal, formally or informally," said president Daniel Angelici, according to Goal.com. "For now, they are all rumours, as always, just comments in the corridors.

"But I know very well what I said to Cristian when we renewed his contract. I am not going to cut off his career, but we made him a nice contract so that he would be comfortable.

"We put a release clause in the contract just in case clubs like this appear. It's then the player who has the last word. He looks fine to me, very focused on 2018 with Boca Juniors. We always help him with his future, but I trust Pavon will be with us for 2018."

Pavon's agent is also unaware of Arsenal having any genuine interest in the wideman, though a representative from England has informed him The Emirates Stadium club are tracking his client.

"I don't know where the news originally came from. I received a call two days ago from an English agent to see if there was a possibility of the player moving as Arsenal are looking at him," Fernando Hidalgo told ¿Cómo te va?, according to Metro.

"If Arsenal are interested they should contact Boca and try send over an offer if they are truly interested in him. 'Nobody has called me officially from Arsenal and I haven't had any chats in regard to this matter.

"If it's true what this person was telling me then they should contact the club is what I said. 'So far I haven't had any news from the club on this matter. Surely they would have called or something, then I would have known about it by now."

Arsenal's purported interest in Pavon comes after they failed to complete a deal for Thomas Lemar during the summer transfer window after an agreement with Monaco collapsed on deadline day.

If a move for Pavon does materialise this winter then it will surely trigger the departure of Sanchez, with Manchester City the outstanding favourites to acquire the Chile international who is out of contract at the end of the season.