Marca journalist Oscar Badallo reports that Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino is set to become an Arsenal player today, with club president Jokin Aperribay in London to finalise a €35m (£29.7m) sale.
Miguel Gonzalez of El Diario Vasco isn’t so sure, claiming there’s still a difference in valuation between Sociedad and Arsenal, and the two clubs didn’t come close enough to an agreement in their first meeting in London on Wednesday.
Mikel Recalde of Noticias de Gipuzkoa splits the difference, reporting that though a deal isn’t done yet and could still fall through, the positions aren’t far apart.
All sources agree that Thursday is key for a potential deal, with negotiations ongoing.
Recalde reports that Merino’s camp have set Thursday as the deadline for the negotiation to be done, Badallo is expecting negotiations to end in agreement on Thursday, and Gonzalez at least confirms that another meeting will take place on Thursday.
It may not be long until updates start to emerge on the status of those Thursday negotiations, and we should then have a better idea of how things will pan out in the final days of the summer window.
At this stage, we’re running out of time for Merino to feature in Arsenal’s squad to face Aston Villa this weekend. The deal would need to be done in the next 24 hours for that to happen, including a medical and contract signing.
Arsenal’s next game isn’t until after the transfer deadline, with the Gunners hosting Brighton on Saturday, August 31st at 12:30 BST.
Merino made 45 appearances for Sociedad last season, scoring eight goals and assisting a further five. He then joined up with Spain on international duty, featuring throughout Euro 2024 as his team ended up winning the trophy.