Arsenal have been sent a very early, very obvious sign that Sevilla will not be paying any fee for Albert Sambi Lokonga next summer, even if his loan deal proves to be a massive success.
That’s at least if Diario de Sevilla’s latest comments are anything to go by, with them making it clear the agreed fee between the two clubs is too high for a permanent transfer to happen.
Lokonga is set to become one of three new signings to arrive at Sevilla this week, with the club finalising an agreement with Arsenal over a season long loan deal which includes a €12m option to make it permanent.
The newspaper explains that the Belgian midfielder landed in the capital of Sevilla yesterday and his deal will be made official in the coming hours after he’s completed the final stages of the move.
He’s arriving as the Spanish club try to overhaul their squad on the cheap this summer, with finances tight and Victor Orta needing to work smart to get new faces into the squad.
Lokonga is a long-term target for him, and he has successfully managed to negotiate Arsenal down to get him too, with the Gunners having initially wanted a mandatory purchase clause to be included in the deal.
Instead that has been turned into a €12m option but Diario de Sevilla say that ‘does not even remotely fit’ into the current finances at the club. In other words, they won’t be paying that.
That’s largely because they haven’t got the money to do so but Diario also add that the deal would only get them 75% of the player’s rights, something they’re also not that keen on.
It seems, then, they’ve simply signed up to whatever terms Arsenal offered after being talked down from the mandatory clause to get the midfielder through the door without any intention of buying him permanently next year, something anyone who knows Sevilla and how they do loan deals, could have seen coming from a mile off.
