The Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal mini-saga has taken several twists over the past few days, with one step forward then followed by a step backward.
The Valencia media have largely been repeating what the English press have reported, seeing no reason to disbelieve it, but also every now and again pointing out that, as far as Valencia sources are concerned, there’s been no official offer.
Arsenal fans have understandably found that frustrating, the transfer is an obvious one to complete, as we’ve repeated several times. The local Valencia press are usually pretty good on the club’s transfers, and if anything over-hype the situation in what sometimes looks like a marketing campaign.
That’s even done when they’d dearly prefer to keep the player. Last year, Nicolas Otamendi was an absolute hero for Valencia fans, and the media, and when it came to the transfer rumours, they reported things with a heavy heart, but never tried to ignore the situation in the hope it would go away.
Their stance on Mustafi isn’t a Comical Ali act.
Reliable English sources have reported strong Arsenal interest, and an impending bid, which should have arrived yesterday at the latest, but there’s no slant on that yet from Valencia.
It looked like things had changed earlier on Thursday when Ali Bulut, Mustafi’s agent, was reported by Germany’s Spox as saying: “Shkodran and Arsenal have agreed. Now all is needed is for the teams to agree on a transfer fee.”
That was in line with other claims from Germany on Thursday.
However, Germany’s Kicker now say that Spox had ‘not cited him correctly’ and present new quotes from Bulut: “There are discussions, but there is no agreement – neither between Arsenal and Mustafi, or between Valencia and Arsenal.”
If that’s an agent backtracking, he’s done it very quickly. At least Bulut confirmed that discussions are ongoing, which is a boost.
Another boost would be Valencia manager Pako Ayestaran seemingly setting fans up for a fall. Quoted by Super Deporte, Pako refused to back the idea Valencia could aim for Champions League qualification next season, saying: “We are not yet who we will be.”
There’s every chance this deal would go through intermediaries, with a deal being built that has no danger of failure. Therefore, Arsenal not making an official bid would fit in, that wouldn’t happen until the going back and forth had found a price agreeable to all and then Arsenal could go through the motion of sending the offer over.
That would be the logical view, because Arsenal not strongly pursuing this deal would be illogical, unless they have something else lined up.
