Arsenal Offer Spanish International 5-Year Deal Worth £7m-Per-Season

The summer transfer window is now open for business and it’s expected to be a busy few weeks as managers strengthen their squads ahead of next season, so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip. Today, Gooner Mac brings us news of Arsenal’s interest in Iker Casillas.

Arsenal appear to be closing in on the signing of Spanish legend Iker Casillas after offering the goalkeeper a five-year deal worth around £7m-per-season, according to reports in Spain.

With Arsene Wenger on the look-out for another experienced keeper to offer competition to Wojciech Szczesny next season following the departure of Lukasz Fabianski, speculation in recent weeks has linked us with a move for Casillias.

Reports earlier this week suggested that Arsenal had made their interest known to Real Madrid and now Spanish newspaper Sport claim we have offered the 33-year-old a five-year deal worth around £7m-per-season.

The paper describes our offer as ‘too good to refuse’ and suggest that Casillas would jump at the chance to make the switch to the Emirates as Arsene Wenger has supposedly promised him the No.1 shirt next season.

However, any potential move comes with the caveat that Madrid MUST agree to rip up his current contract and let the keeper leave for nothing, as Wenger is reluctant to pay a transfer fee on top of the sizeable wages.

Sport believe there is a good chance this will happen as Madrid have just agreed a deal to sign Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas and would be glad to see Casillas’ wages off their books, while president Florentino Pérez is also understood to have a verbal agreement with the keeper that he’ll let him walk away for free as a thank you for 24-years of loyal service to the club.

It remains to be how much truth is behind all these rumours but the speculation is certainly growing. I wouldn’t be disappointed to see Casillas come to Arsenal as despite his recent woes, I still think he’s a fine goalkeeper who will rediscover his best form if given the chance, but the timing of these reports is intriguing considering our strong links to David Ospina.

Widespread reports in England claim we have agreed a £3.5m deal with Nice to sign the Colombian international stopper and the 25-year-old is expected to complete his move to the Emirates when he returns from holiday next week.

So it seems the Spanish press believe we’re closing in on Casillas while the UK papers claim it’s Ospina that we’ll sign. There’s very little chance we’ll buy both, so it looks like either the papers have their information wrong or Wenger is lining up both deals before making a late decision over which one to complete.

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I’d personally prefer to see Ospina sign as Casillas would only join if he was guaranteed to be No.1 and I feel it would be harsh to drop Szczesny after an excellent season last year. Ospina would certainly push the Polish international but I could see him content at being understudy for at least a season, and we’d have two excellent young goalkeepers in our squad.