According to a report in Marca, Real Sociedad are looking to accelerate a deal for Nacho Monreal so the Spanish international can travel to Spain today ahead of an important La Liga showdown on Friday.
The San Sebastian outfit face fellow Basques Athletic Bilbao, and want the 33 year old available for the crunch local derby.
The report talks about Monreal in such a way that suggests the whole thing is basically done and dusted, with Nacho apparently signing a contract until 2021 with an option for another year on top of that.
It does feel like strange timing from an Arsenal point of view though. Despite the £25m signing of Kieran Tierney, he’s still making his way back from injury, and the Gunners do have a derby of their own to contend with this weekend when Sp*rs travel to the Emirates.
Unai Emery does have Sead Kolasinac at his disposal, but has most often used the Bosnian when deploying a back three, preferring Monreal when using a flat back four. Perhaps that gives us some insight into the approach for Sunday’s game.
There’s so much smoke around this one it feels like a transfer that is inevitable, but we’ll just have to wait and see exactly when it goes through.
For more on Monreal, check out today’s Arseblog
Nacho-a-go-go: Monreal heavily linked with imminent Spanish return
Strange one, feel Nacho is our most consistent player and would happily have him stay until the end of the season.
If he does go, however, I hope it’s after the NLD (and the club announce it beforehand) so we can give him the rapturous send off he deserves.
What about the risk of injury in the NLD?
If Monreal is going, and the deal has reached the level insinuated in this post, there is no chance of Arsenal risking him in that match anyway.
I suspect Tierney is ahead of schedule and Unai is willing to go with Kolasinac on Sunday.
Then he stays anyway…great!
Not sure why we are doing this. Just hurts our depth and experience. And the guy is still getting it done. And he’s on a good deal and surely this isn’t going to net more then 1-2M quid?! Anyone have any idea of the fee? Can’t find it anywhere. Sad to see such a useful, committed guy go and don’t get it at all.
Everyone reports a small fee so it is unlikely to be about the money for us, and probably not for him either. I suspect that he does not want to spend a year as a back-up or bit part player this late in his career.
Maybe so let him go in January. He’ll get plenty of action until then. And a nice period to bring along Tierny with some key pointers. Now…it just doesn’t make sense.
What you said.
donostia > london
He’s not throwing his toys out of the pram, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was mostly driven by Nacho and his agent, rather than the club. A swansong in San Sebastian sounds f-ing great, and I can imagine it’s hard to turn down.
Raul will just tell them they can have him “Manana” which can be any day from when it’s said (and in this case the day after NLD). Procrastination is in their culture , they won’t mind. I’m getting the hang of it as well this comment was supposed to go with an article from yesterday originally.
The player wants to leave, if they offer him two year contact. We don’t offer him an extension therefore he wants to look his future, we had the same situation with kocielny but obviously kocielny has other problems as well with arsenal
In terms of the timing, there is something weird about this report, from the Spanish side, not just our side. If Monreal leaves *today* he will have a maximum of two days to train with his new side to play in the Basque derby, which is supposedly the point of rushing him out before our own NLD. That’s ridiculous. Leaving just before the transfer deadline, and having the international break to train, makes much more sense. (Assuming it makes sense for him to go at all.)
Kos forced his exit from Arsenal and the club cannot deny that to other players. It seems two or three years of career extension for players overrides contracts in football. The difference in this case is that Nacho did not force anything. I know you guys love Mertsacker and his life experience and all that but his case was even worse. He got one year of free salary while virtually out of the team and waiting for a position he had no experience for. At least, he seems to be doing a good job in the academy.
Legally clubs can enforce a players contract of course but in practice it doesn’t work most of the time. You end up with a disgruntled player (Kos, for example) on the books with all the negative implications that could bring for the squad/club. All in all, it’s not worth it.
In Monreal’s case though, he’s been a good player for us and if he really wants to go without forcing anything, I don’t see Arsenal preventing it. I’m sure we’d prefer to keep him/his experience for this season.
And after a year out he pretty much played the game of his life in the FA cup final
Mertescker. Free money!? Have you not heard of the recent “Mertesacker” FA Cup final victory?
It’s a deal that makes sense, I suppose. I’d rather it was done in January but there we go.
I just can’t see the sense of it. Sure we have Tierny, but he’s injured. We have Kolasinac, but he’s had his off-field issues recently, then we have…no-one because we sold our quality young LB to get Tierny. Not only that, but if we have our usual CB injury disaster Nacho gives us depth there. And he is still good! Dam good. I’d say he’d be close to the best 33+ defender in the EPL right now for sure. Can you think of a better mentor for Tierny? Why not wait until January? It’s a bit mad IMO…
I’m not Kolasinac’s biggest fan, but can anybody tell me which team has a better second choice left back than him? Of the two best teams last season, City played a teenage winger (Zinchenko) most games, then played a right back (Danilo) when he was injured. Liverpool had Robertson, but then had Moreno (who is shit) or Milner (Not a LB) after that. If we want to be economically efficient, this is a sensible move.
I actually think kola gets a bad wrap. I like the guy, he makes a few mistakes sure, but he’s good. That hasn’t got much to do with letting Monreal go right now. He hasn’t played yet in the league due to off pitch issues and he’s had a fair whack of injuries too. Tierny is coming off a pretty serious injury and will need to be eased in when he finally comes back (still at least a month). So what do we do if Kola goes down? Luiz at LB? Put the season on the line over a few… Read more »
Definitely.. Kola landed in the bracket of players who are allowed to make zero mistakes, while others can lose points on their own, lose you cups but no one will bat an eye lid. Unfortunately, that’s how the support goes these days..
You can’t keep three LBs happy who all aspire to be first choice. That being said, as stated earlier, I’d rather he left in January.
I agree on the Jan making sense thing, but that is not what seems to be going on here does it?
Because the player wants to go most probably its not up to Arsenal! We don’t offer him another contract because he is 33 but other teams offer him 2 years contract. So fans have to look from the players perspective as well
Hate this deal. Tierney could struggle when he comes in due to having hardly played football since May! So he can hardly go the rest of the season without getting some set backs or niggles, and will have to be managed.
That just leaves Kola who gets a lot of little injuries and isn’t that good in a 4. For the pittance we will get for Monreal I would definitely keep him until the end of the season or at least until Jan so we can see how Tierney can handle the work load.
As the article mentions, the story was “resurrected” in the Spanish sports paper, Marca. They don’t have a 100% record by any means, but they do have close links with La Liga clubs so this can’t be dismissed out of hand. I hope Monreal doesn’t leave this season as, like many Gooners, I think we could do with his experience in this crucial season and the article touches on this as well. Should he leave we obviously won’t get much of a fee – if any. Although there’s a suggestion that there may be some sort of tie-in deal regarding… Read more »
The last of the Mohicans are more or less “nicely” shown the way out, it seems.
If this does happen, for me makes the Dominic Thompson sale stranger.
He could’ve at least been around the squad, playing in the u23s but being possible cover for Sead before then sending him on loan in Jan.
Not sure when Tierney returns, but having just 1 LB for weeks/months is surely a risk, especially when it’s Kola.
“but having just 1 LB for weeks/months is surely a risk”
Well, having 0 right backs for the whole second half of last season plus not reacting during the summer transfer window is even stranger..
Maitland Niles deputises decently, I think.
They’d better invest in January. If the things we’re hearing about payment structures are real, we’re somehow close to breaking even this window.
More investment needed, and possible, ASAP.
Well Jenkinson was there as RB – not used much
Spot on…
Dominic Thompson was part of the Tierney deal, a bit like Giroud was for Auba. Celtic had been linked to Brentford LB, Rico Henry, who apparently was keen on the move, all summer. Us sending Thompson to Brentford gave Celtic a sign that they’d be able to secure their replacement so they could let Tierney leave. Unfortunately for Celtic, it looks like Henry was doing the classic “pretend you want to leave to get a new contract” as he signed new terms last week, so Celtic have been left with out either.
Yeah, we all get why Thomo was moved, but wouldn’t that mean you’d want to keep Nacho more so we’re covered?
Hi marca,
No
If Marca are right (and we still don’t know), shouldn’t it be “Hi, Real Sociedad, No.” ?
Can we do one of those deals where we sell the player and then loan him back?
I understand it is all the rage for backs this transfer window.
(seriously, at least till Jan / when Kieran Tierney is up and playing)
This is just plain stupid. Kola is injury prone.
Why would you risk your top 4 status for a few million?
Why can’t we act like a big club and keep him.
Seems like all our experienced players have left. In a while we won’t have any players that know what it means to play for Arsenal except Bellerin.
Perhaps the idea is that AMN is in reserve to help at LB (I believe he played there when he got injured against City?) and Chambers can support at RB (if Bellerin and Tierney still aren’t back and Kolasinac gets injured)…
Definitely not ideal but
“Definitely not ideal but”…lets do it anyway?!
So currently our starting RB will be our 2nd choice LB.
And our 2nd choice RB would be???????????
Our starting LB
Chambers
Since Mustafi has no spot on the squad for Centre Back, maybe we can play him there /s
GXhaka of course!
Not too sure about this one. Nancho has been fantastic for us and given the numbers at the back, I feel like this will leave us more vulnerable. Obviously once KT is fit, he’ll slot in there but in the meantime SK isn’t great as a traditional full back and cant see who would cover that position with such a big game coming up.
Not sure about this one?
Kolasinac is awful in possession, his passing is atrocious, and he’s lacking in agility.
His main qualities are attacking space in the transition, his linkup with Iwobi last season was one of our main attacking outlets, and I’m not sure Aubameyang and Kolasinac down the left works? because where Iwobi would drop into pockets, Aubameyang’s natural game is to attack spaces in front of him.
.
Kolasinac is good in possession.
He has improved defensively as well.
Going forward of course,he is a beast.
Monreal has also been culpable out of position many times.
That said, Monreal has been in decent form recently since the Tierny purchase.
And the issue is more depth with Tierny not ready for a while.
Nacho’s last Arsenal game shouldn’t be the Liverpool defeat. It should be a 5-0 victory over the other lot with him scoring the final goal.
*all 5
Good luck Nacho, thank you for the years and dedication. Silently you were one of the best players of this barren era of our club.
Three FA cups! Kids today…
Would hate to see Monreal go, has been one of our best and most consistent players in the years he’s been with Arsenal. He is a class act too. I doubt we will get much for him and would far prefer him see out his contract and get a proper send off he deserves.
That would be ideal – but from his viewpoint, given he’ll be 34 next birthday, a move now would make more sense so he can get a couple of full seasons (at least) in La Liga prior to retirement from playing.
Free Mustafi with every Monreal purchased?
Roll up, roll up you lucky people …
Why worry about Mustafi?
At this rate we might need him with Liability Luiz.
You’re the one that keeps bringing Mustafi into almost every thread! It’s a bit early to start calling Luiz a liability isn’t it? He cost £8 million and has had one stinker of a game. Your pal cost £35 million (and a lot more in weekly wages, I’ll bet) and produced similar performances on a regular basis since 2016. What nickname would you give him?
If we’re about to sell him, do let’s do it after derby match, in which Nacho eould give us a win with the screamer on 94th minute. That would be some decent goodbye.
Will miss him.
I’m not sure if I’d let him go till January with Tierny still out and Kolasinac the only main option.
Kolasinac of course no way as poor defending as some care to imagine but we will need back up. One injury to the Bosnian and we will be again scrambling for options.
Its a practical issue.
However being that we have dug our own hole (again) with Cback, I won’t be surprise if we make yet another foolish decision. Its all about mitigating risk.
Whaaaat – no mention of Mustafi. Are you cured?
I.m going to say sad if he goes. Nacho is one of ours and a good defender. How much money can we get from this sale?
I will miss him if this happens.
(win,lose or draw) We don’t deserve a Coward as a coach
We need a real protagonist and not a fake protagonist
Emery is not the man we need.. Arsenal fans open your eyes before we make things more difficult for the next coach!
We made a big mistake allowing winger to stay too long(we missed out on good coaches Klopp, simeone,allegri because the damage looked heavy)…we shouldn’t repeat this mistake with Emery.. Please i cry out!….Emery needs to go win lose or draw
Well, it’s a point of view but is it relevant to this particular story about Monreal staying or going?
Also, I was a tad surprised to read that you think Emery should go even if he wins – I’m not sure what else he could do as a coach but win. There’s no chance of Kroenke Snr. removing Emery if that was the case (and he’ll decide in the end, not the fans). Still, it’s early days in the season so we’ll have to see what happens.
Even the worst coach will win games with this squad…but if you think Emery is the right man to take us forward then be ready to experience the pain
I must have misunderstood your earlier comment: “Emery needs to go win lose or draw.” It still appears to leave no room for improvement. After a single full season, and given the mess that he inherited, I think it’s too early to decide about Emery yet. He has a two year contract with the option of an additional year by mutual consent so could be “let go” at the end of this season if there’s no obvious improvement over last – and that means getting a top 4 finish, which is the club’s top priority. Nothing will happen before then… Read more »
Even if he gets the top four..i have lost faith in him.. I don’t see him like a top coach with a defined style
So it doesn’t matter what he does, he still has to go because you don’t like his style. Hmmm.
When Nacho leaves I will be sad. I will miss his awesome reactions, when things go our way, and when things don’t, I will miss his consistency and all round good-guyness. He has been one of my favourites since his first match, away at stoke, where he bloodied an orc. Whatever happens in the next day or two Nacho is like Santi, always a Gunner and always loved. I can understand why he would want to go home now and maybe the timing isn’t the best, but he’s earned the right.
??♂️