Arsenal considering signing, and trying to sign, players from Barcelona’s La Masia is a long held source of fury for the Catalan media. Every now and again, one of the twin Catalan sport newspapers will erupt at the Premier League club and wheel out a list of reasons to be annoyed.
This happened a lot more when Barcelona were being strongly linked to Hector Bellerin, but since that all died a death, so has the annoyance towards Arsenal… or at least the airing of it.
Arsene Wenger could do something to change that, report Marca, a Spanish sport newspaper leaning more towards Madrid. Jose Arnaiz is said to have attracted Arsenal’s attention, and not just a little bit.
Marca state Arsenal are willing to ‘go seriously’ to sign Arnaiz and, as such, ‘will even pay his clause’. The clause is €20m, so it’s hardly breaking any banks.
No player is allowed to be registered by more than three clubs in any one season, and Arnaiz has been registered to Valladolid, Barcelona B and Barcelona. Footballers are then allowed to represent two of those clubs.
There’s really no need for Arsenal to defy the FIFA rules, if Marca are correct on the player potentially being over registered, when they could simply wait until the summer and pay his clause then.
That’s if the interest is real and not aimed at raising the youngster’s profile.
