According to a report in Spanish publication AS, Arsenal have accepted a €10 million offer from Athletic Bilbao for Nacho Monreal.
It’s claimed the left-back has agreed a 3-year deal with the Basque club after the Gunners decided not to offer the Spaniard an extension to the contract he signed in January 2013.
We’re slightly dubious about the story given the 29-year-old was one of Arsenal’s most improved players last year and in light of his recent comments underlining a desire to prolong his stay at the Emirates.
Monreal made 39 appearances for the Gunners last season, including a stint as an auxiliary centre-back in the early months, as he usurped Kieran Gibbs as the club’s first choice left-back. The ex-Malaga man did travel to the Far East and could feature in today’s friendly against a Singapore XI.
AS also claim that Arsenal will direct any funds received from the sale of Monreal to the signing of Napoli’s Algerian left-back Faouzi Ghoulam. Born in Paris, the 24-year-old started his career at St Etienne before moving to Naples in 2014.
We’re going for 6 on the poo-o-meter…AS talk in a very assertive tone about the deal, but we’re still not sure.
Perhaps we’re in denial as the ‘We built this city on Monreal’ chant hasn’t even had time to bed in. Sad face.
Would be pretty disappointed if he was to leave, one of the unsung heroes last season and never really had a bad game.
And that goal against Man U in the cup. I think I lost my voice after shouting about that. So much time for Nacho.
Likewise. Very disappointed is putting it mildly. He was / is much improved and we should keep him.
We’re trying to build a settled defence not dismantle it.
Really hope this is bs, our best defender last season by a country mile………
It can’t be the same Monreal as this, surely.
http://news.arseblog.com/2015/06/nacho-i-want-to-stay-at-arsenal/
The report claims that he wanted to stay and have his contract renewed but Arsenal didn’t want to extend.
OK, interesting. Hard to understand why not so let’s see what the club says or what happens.
Strange they took him to Singapore if this was something they knew was happening. Against that he hasn’t appeared in many publicity shots.
I agree, doesn’t make sense. Besides, don’t we hear this every summer? Last time it was Atletico Madrid (which could have been vaguely tempting as they’re in the CL and can presumably pay similar wages to us) but why would he want to go to Athletic Bilbao?
Excellent that Dracula has scored on his first outing (goal, not blood) for the under-18s v. Ipswich. I have high hopes of that kid.
The more I think, the more it is Nacho’s agent wanting a new deal from Arsenal. Bilbao don’t make sense for Nacho’s career, they ended 7th in La Liga last season, so no CL football. But a useful lever to get Arsenal agreeing a new deal.
If this doesn’t come then Nacho is more likely to do a Sol/Flamini and run the last year of his contract down to get a great final contract at the end of the coming season, from Bilbao or whoever.
And he’s playing this afternoon in Singapore. Hmmm…
Didn’t he feature in the home kit launch?
Koscielny was better.
Koscielny had a bad season due to his inflammation and had a fair amount of bad games (at least partly because of that) so no, he wasn’t better last season…………………..
Utter nonsense!………..must be the agent playing tricks, trying to use the media to shake us down for a better deal for his client!…mind you, not that nancho dosent deserve it in my opinion
Love Nacho, but Kosh is the rock at the back!
This should be measured in Tot’nums, not poos.
Wouldn’t Jack Wilshere tell you they’re the same thing?
Not if he wants to avoid a ban. Or unless he’s had a few and been up all night celebrating cup glory.
Not if he wants to have any money left at the end of his career.
Same thing – just ask Jack.
What’s the difference?
Bollix
That’d be a shame as he did fantastically well after the new year.
Wenger said we won’t lose core players so I don’t see why he would sell a starter for a young LB unproven in the PL.
I for one would be gutted if this turned out to be true. Monreal has really improved and is head and shoulders our best left back now, which I would have thought nearly impossible this time last year. There aren’t many teams in the Prem who I would switch left backs with. Except Manure and that is only because Luke Shaw would make me look thin if I stood next to him.
“head and shoulders”
Unsure if barber pun …
Subtle but yes! You deserve a medal, because you’re worth it
AS – Absolute Shite
or Absolute Spurs
Where’s the difference?
AS have been peddling this story for ages, it’s not even new any more
Hopefully bollocks. Also, given his performances he’s worth a lot more than that bid, so if he is on the way out we should take them to the cleaners.
Would be gutted to see him go, if true. One of our best players last season.
I can’t see why we’d offload our best leftback without a deal already in place to replace him. And why would Monreal want to go to Bilbao when he’s the starting fullback at Arsenal? This needs more poos me thinks.
Someone please tell Bilbao that Monreal is Nacho player.
thank you
Bit worrying. Very assured, from a semi reliable source. And there can’t be too much copy in printing that story. I mean if it were Barca or one of the Madrid’s for more money it would make a better fabrication.
Still no reason it can’t just be Monreal’s leaking false crap hoping to get a better deal from Arsenal.
Monreal’s agent I mean.
AS are the Spanish equivalent of the Metro. I have a big pinch of salt waiting.
Please don’t let this be true. He was one of our most consistent players last season. I’d be heartbroken if he leaves.
It would take a Cech-esque move to make him want to leave and that’s not happening.
Bull. Absolute bull. It’s just throwing away our new found stability at the back. On current form, Monreal over Gibbs. We have a great thing going with all of our fullbacks, long may it continue.
If this is true, it completely makes no sense
Unless he is replaced by Alaba then NO!!!
Well, Nacho is a Basque guy and Bilbao can only sign Basque folks.
If he does move, it will be out of loyalty to his own people, I guess. If so, good for him as it shows that for once, football isn’t just about the $$$.
But my guess is that the deal will be completed only next year “) This is an advanced sales I reckon as Nacho has 2 years left on his contract.
Reckon AS must have borrowed some of them sky sources.
Nah his chant should be na-cho-mon-reeeaalll I want to be like Monreal!! Sung to the tune of macho man by the village people….. give it a try it’s fun!!
Nonsense was my initial reaction. When I googled Ghoulam one think jumped out at me though: 6ft 2. Nacho being out-jumped for us to twice lose to Swansea does stick in the mind, maybe some others I don’t remember. Having another 6 footer at the back means we’re less of a mess defending set pieces sans Oli G. And didn’t tall left back Benedict Howedes say he turned us down earlier in the summer?
I wonder if this means we did make an offer for that Napoli defender but I’m not sure this is true.
I hope this is not true.
However, stranger transfers have happened before. E.g. there were some sporadic news about Clichy and Chec a year before the deal.
Its not the first news about Nacho’s exit – just hope it’s not for this year.
He’s worth more that 10 million Euros. That’s only 7 million Pounds. We wouldn’t get him for that if he was playing elsewhere.
Given his talent, and allowing for his age, I’d say his market value is about 12 million Pounds.
The auto-playing bird/phone video on this page is appalling.
One of the most offensive-minded fullback ever to strut his stuff at arsenal. His opener at Manchester united in April was finely taken. He can also ‘strangely’ do a job in the center of defense, no?
Selling the most consistent left back last season in the league would be ludicrous
Spanish press is excelling in the dark art of spreading bullshit in order to get innocent galluble fans to buy newspapers or click on links. ABSOLUTO RUBBISHTA AMIGO (hope that’s Spanish)
I’d practice English before trying out a second language if I were you! GULLIBLE 🙂
Makes sense to me considering his consistency was only at the end of last season.
What you got in your pipe there mister ? 🙂
i wouldnt worry about it, as if wenger likes to overhaul his squad. why would we let him go after a season where he showed exactly why we bought him for.it is all BS.
who’s that one asshole that disliked each and every comment?…it bothered me
As for monreal, this is definitely bullshit!…prolly a ploy to gauge and see how the fans will react if this were to happen. Best defender last season, and hopefully to continue this season. By far our most improved player
Still running with the ‘much improved’ nonsense, I see.
Is Monreal even Basque? That’s the first clue to wether this is a 6 poo or 10 poo story.
he is, from Pamplona
Don’t believe we’ll go for Ghoulam, The days of Arsene signing current African internationals seems to be a thing of the past.
Where is the STUNNED/SHOCKED/FLABBERGASTED/UNBELIEVABLE/WTF! emoticon when you need one …
Let’s be honest here. It’s unfair to rate Monreal on the back of six extremely good months. Before that he was backup to Gibbs but got a lot of games because of injuries. Wenger will likely always see Gibbs as his first-choice but wants a real contender who is younger than 29 and on a long-term contract. Only real chance to get decent money for Monreal is.. now.
With that said, I like Monreal a lot so good luck to him whatever happends.
Don’t leg Winterburn hear you say that :p
Nacho means Dance in hindi…. certainly nothing to dance about this piece of news…
Hi. I’m an Athletic Club fan and really think neither you nor us can trust this news, as AS is fairly known for spreading unconfirmed information just for the sake of attracting attention. That being said, I do hope this information is not just bullshit (and depending on the political views of the ones you could speak with, Monreal is Basque or not -for me he is Basque-).
Thanks for the information. Much better than the two twats that gave me thumbs down for asking about the most basic requirement of any athletic club player.
A spanish girl that works in the cafe near my office in Vancouver used to go to school with Monreal, apparently he asked her out and she turned him down the poor lad. Will hit her up for transfer confirmation.
If this does happen I will scream and scream until I am sick!
This is sheer, absolute nonsense. There isn’t enough poo in the Universe to fit this on the poo-meter.
“We’re slightly dubious about the story given the 29-year-old was one of Arsenal’s most improved players last year…”
We always sell our best players every season, right?
You’re several seasons behind on news then. We have not been selling our best players for several seasons now.;)
I suggest you get a bot more current.;)
Monreal was one of our best improved players and a testament to organic development together with Bellerin and Coquelin.
He will need replacement maybe 2 seasons down but we likely won’t be letting him go this summer.
That said, I did mention that this summer, IF we find one, we may be on the look out for a very very good Lback to come into academy for the future.
Meanwhile Monreal and Gibbs like Bellerin and Debuchy are solid for the next few seasons.
i half-expect this type of headline from no less metro:
nacho monoRAIL: ARSENAL’S ATTACKING FULLBACK TO TRAVEL TO BILBAO BY RAIL AHEAD OF MEDICAL TOMMOROW
I assume if RVP cost just under 4 million, then, by comparison, Monreal’s worth at least, what, 25 million?
Nacho Nacho mannnnnn I want to be a Nacho mannnnn!