Morning.
I see some rumours from the Portuguese press that Viktor Gyokeres’ move to Arsenal is at risk because of some issue with how the add-ons are structured. Apparently Sporting want the €10m to be ‘easily achievable’, and we’re supposedly resistant to that. Last night Fabrizio Romano posted that the two clubs are still in talks to completely finalise the deal, but I’d be amazed if this wasn’t just a bit more posturing before it all gets done and we can move on with our lives.
Over the weekend, the Sporting president Frederico Varandas came out with his stuff about how he wouldn’t bend to any pressure and that the whole situation would be resolved by issuing the player a ‘hefty fine’ before he apologised to the squad – presumably then to restart his career in Lisbon. The very next day, we had that breakthrough between the clubs where the fee was agreed, the agent reportedly waived his fee (the dude is still getting paid, you know it), and the Swedish international was all set to make the switch to North London.
Now, there’s another hurdle to jump. Sporting have some previous here too. When Sp*rs were set to buy Pedro Porro in January 2023, it was reported that deal was on the brink of collapse because the Portuguese club wanted some extra cash for an ‘administration fee’. The transfer went through the next day. For that window, they had the imminent deadline to work with, that’s not the case here, and it seems as if Varandas is going to play public hardball as long as possible, which I suppose he has every right to do in order to get the best deal for his club. I can only imagine he’s very irritating to deal with from our side though.
It all really depends what these add-ons are. It was reported back in 2022, when Liverpool signed Darwin Nunez from Benfica, that an ‘add-on’ payment of £4.3m would be due after just 10 appearances. Typically though, these things are usually a combination of player landmarks (50 appearances, 50 goals for example), and ones based around the success of the team (a payment if Arsenal win the Premier League or Champions League).
Romano’s post last night suggested Sporting want that €10m in add-ons to be ‘almost guaranteed’, and that’s supposedly the sticking point. I’ll just say this, if Arsenal really want this player – and it seems they do because this is the biggest decision of the summer by some distance and we’ve nailed our colours firmly to the mast at this point – it shouldn’t be too difficult to work this out. I understand you need to be seen to be good negotiators, and that you want to prevent a kind of precedent being set so this kind of scenario doesn’t happen again, but once the deal is 100% done, nobody will really give a shit how that €10m, which is a little over 13% of the total fee, ends up in Sporting’s bank account. Especially if he’s banging the goals in. And anyway, each club will brief the press about how good the deal was from their point of view, adding more noise to the mix.
Meanwhile, having mentioned the need for a defender in yesterday’s blog, news emerged that we had agreed a fee with Valencia for 21 year old defender Cristhian Mosquera. He’s due to travel to London for a medical, and all going well, will travel on tour to Singapore and Hong Kong. The fee is reportedly €15m, potentially rising to €20m (in uncomplicated fashion it seems), and that’s a solid deal for a young player with some real potential.
I think first and foremost he’ll be cover for William Saliba, something we really need, but he can play on the other side of central defence too. Whether that’s seen as sufficient to allow someone like Jakub Kiwior to leave, we’ll have to wait and see. He is young and for defenders in particular there’s a steep learning curve when it comes to the Premier League. We also know that Mikel Arteta is not really to expose a young defender before he thinks he’s ready – Saliba himself is a case in point there. His loan moves made sense, and ultimately I think were beneficial, but Arteta was willing to endure some iffy centre-halves rather than use a player he felt needed first team football as part of his development.
So, we’ll have to wait and see what the plan is for Mosquera who is just 21, but has almost 100 senior appearances for Valencia, having made his debut for them back in January 2022. I like the profile of the signing though. This summer has been mostly about ready-made players, plug and play options with experience who give us depth in key positions, but they can’t all be like that. I suppose as well there might just be an element of potential future-proofing too. I hope that Saliba’s contract is something we can sort out this summer, but if there’s any issue there – and I’m not saying there is, I have no info on that – perhaps a signing like Mosquera is a kind of safety net in that regard.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, the Arsecast Extra is below. Have a good one, and we’ll bring you any updates on Arseblog News.
