Of all the players being shipped out by Real Madrid this summer, Lucas Vazquez can consider himself a little unfortunate.
The Spaniard has never done anything particularly wrong at the Bernabeu, nor has he been a bad performer. In fact, Zinedine Zidane is a known admirer of him and, unlike some players, would not be put out if he remained.
The problem is, Madrid’s lavish spending needs to be backed up by sales and that means players like Vazquez are on the hit list.
The right-winger is unlikely to have a shortage of offers and one of the clubs regularly linked with him so far is Arsenal.
The Gunners are looking to build after a solid start to life under Unai Emery last season and Vazquez would represent an upgrade on their current options. The issue for Arsenal is his price tag.
They don’t have a lot of money to spend and Marca report today that it’s holding up any potential deal for Vazquez.
Real Madrid value their man at €40m, hardly an unreasonable fee in this market for a player who has played a meaningful role in Madrid’s success of late.
Arsenal, though, are ‘yet to offer’ that amount.
That suggests they’ve come in with a much lower bid than Madrid want and given those limited funds, it seems unlikely they’ll go too high to get their man.
Whether they can negotiate Madrid down is also debatable. The La Liga side definitely need the cash but Vazquez is not one they’re desperate to move on.
