Arsenal
Arsenal Hoping To Push Through Late €18m Deal For Real Madrid Target
Arsenal are hoping to push through a late deal to sign highly-rated Valencia left-back Jose Luis Gaya with Arsene Wenger ready to meet his €18m buy-out clause
Transfer deadline day is here and managers are frantically trying to tie-up those late deals to strengthen their squads ahead of the second half of the season, so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip. Today, Arsenal are linked with Jose Luis Gaya…
Arsenal are hoping to push through a last minute deal to sign highly-rated Valencia left-back Jose Luis Gaya with Arsene Wenger ready to meet his €18m release clause, according to reports.
Gaya has emerged as one of the best young talents in Spain since breaking into the Valencia first team this season and has been hugely impressive in his 26 appearances in all competitions so far.
The 19-year-old’s form has attracted interest from some of Europe’s top clubs with reports earlier this month suggesting that Real Madrid and Arsenal are keeping a close eye on his progress.
However, it seems Arsene Wenger is ready to steal a march on the European champions as the Daily Star are reporting that Arsenal are set to make a late swoop for the youngster by activating his€18m (£13.5m) release clause today.
Valencia are understandably desperate to keep hold of Gaya and, backed by their new billionaire owner Peter Lim, it’s believed they are ready to offer him a new bumper contract which would see his buy-out clause increase significantly.
But that contract won’t be agreed any time soon so Wenger could still take advantage and the newspaper suggests the Gunners boss is confident he’ll be able to persuade Gaya to snub interest from Madrid and lure him to the Emirates before tonight’s 11pm deadline.
It’s difficult to know how much truth there is behind these reports but following the signing of Gabriel I didn’t expect Wenger to bring in any more defenders this window and I certainly didn’t think he’d go for a left-back.
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We already have Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal on the books, so unless Arsene sees Nacho’s long-term future at centre-back or he’s planning on a return to Spain in the summer, I’d be surprised if we did end up making a move for Gaya over the coming hours, but you never know….
