Arsenal and Manchester United Suffer Blow as Madrid Rule Out Morata and Coentrao Exit

Arsenal and Manchester United have suffered blows in doing business in the January transfer window after Real Madrid assistant manager Paul Clement ruled out the sale of Alvaro Morata and Fabio Coentrao.

The Spanish striker has been linked with a loan move to the Emirates while the Portuguese defender has long been a transfer target for United manager David Moyes. Morata even admitted that he could leave the nine-time European champions in January.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has seen Olivier Giroud return from injury during their 2-1 win over Aston Villa. However, Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott are out on the sidelines as the England international is ruled out for the rest of the season. This has seen the Frenchman claim that he would be looking in for an attacker in the mid-season transfer window.

United have Patrice Evra as the first choice left-back, who has revealed that he will leave the Premier League champions after the end of the season citing personal reasons. The former Everton manager is keen on signing Coentrao while the Gunners's boss is eyeing a move in bringing Morata to the Emirates.

The Spanish capital club's assistant manager has ruled out the sale of Morata and Coentrao. Clement claims that Real have a small squad and are unwilling to let the two leave Santiago Bernabeu in the ongoing transfer window.

"I don't think so at this point [Madrid would be willing to allow Morata and Coentrao to leave in January]. Alvaro is going to attract interest because he is a very talented young player, he'll be very sought-after," Clement told talkSPORT.

"But we have a small squad here, we're working with 20 outfield players and we currently have two players out with injury, so that leaves us with 18. These are the players that I'm pretty sure we will work with for the rest of the season."

"I don't see any movement in this window at all from us. We've very happy with the players we've got and in the majority of cases the players are happy at the club and want to help us be successful this year in every competition."

"I'm not sure what might happen next summer, but that's certainly the case now. We'll move through January into the business end of the season with the squad we've currently got," Real assistant manager concluded.