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Arsenal Open Talks To Sign £25m-Rated Attacker In Bargain Deal

By on May 22, 2014

Some interesting news has been doing the rounds over the past 24 hours with reports in Spain claiming that Arsenal have opened talks with Real Sociedad over the futures of both Carlos Vela and Antoine Griezmann.

We’ve been linked with both attackers in recent weeks and it seems Arsene Wenger is keen to bring one to the Emirates this summer, but the big question is which player is he most interested in?

Greizmann has attracted the attention of some top clubs after hitting 16 goals last season, despite spending most of his time on the wing, and it’s understood he has a €30m (£25m) buy-out clause in his contract.

Vela has been superb at Sociedad since we sold him two years ago for just €3m and has just enjoyed the best season of his professional career, with the Mexican scoring 21 and providing 13 assists last campaign.

However, we inserted a clause in his contract stipulating we can buy him back for just €4m and widespread reports claim Arsene Wenger is contemplating triggering the clause this summer. The 26-year-old has even suggested Arsenal would be ‘stupid’ not to re-sign him for such an amount.

Sociedad are desperate to hang on to Vela and it’s claimed that they have asked to remove the buy-back clause, only to be told by Arsenal that it would cost them €12m to do so. The cash-strapped club can’t afford to pay that kind of money so Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo claim we’ve put forward a proposal that would see the €12m used a part-payment for Griezmann’s signature.

With Griezmann valued at €30m – if this deal is accepted – that would see us sign the French international for a bargain €18m – which works out at around £14.5m. Obviously it’s a tricky one for Sociedad as they’d lose Greizmann on the cheap, but they’d get to keep hold of Vela and remove our buy-back clause without paying a penny.

For Arsenal, it’s kind of a win-win situation. We have the chance to buy Vela for well below his market value and either keep hold of him or sell him on at a huge profit, with his market value around £20m. Alternatively, we turn down the chance to re-sign him, remove the buy-back clause and sign Greizmann for well below what he’s truly worth.

Vela has hinted he’d be open to a return to Arsenal as long as he’d get regular action, but even if he turned down the chance to come back, we also have a 50% sell-on clause meaning we’d take half of any future fee that Sociedad sell him for.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out but I’d happily see either Vela or Griezmann join Arsenal. However, if we’re looking at it strictly from a financial point-of-view, buying Vela back for €4m would probably make the most sense.