Arsenal’s pursuit of Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino is at an end, with an agreement finally in place between the two clubs
That’s according to Noticias de Gipuzkoa, who report that Arsenal will pay €32.5m plus €5m in potential bonuses for the midfielder.
The newspaper states that while there are still ‘some small details’ to be worked on before Arsenal tie up their move for Merino, there is now an agreement in place with Real Sociedad.
The two clubs have finally struck an agreement after Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay travelled to London this week. He wanted to bring the soap opera to an end and has managed to achieve that.
The Gunners will pay €32.5m fixed and €5m in potential bonuses on top of that after seeing an initial €30m offer rejected.
Merino had made it clear that he wanted to join Arsenal but was not going to ‘press’ to leave. In other words, he was not going to force an exit from the Spanish side.
He has continued to train as normal until a few days ago, which was seen as a sign that an agreement was very close.
It had been a matter of time and now Aperribay has sorted the matter with Arsenal, leaving the midfielder free to travel to London to finalise matters.
