Ryan Taylor reported on Thursday night that Arsenal were expected to confirm Pablo Mari’s departure to Serie A side AC Monza within 24 hours.
Monza’s obligation to buy Mari had reportedly already been triggered for just under £6m, after they avoided relegation and the player hit his appearance target.
Monza had secured their status as a Serie A club with a number of games to go, as they ended up finishing 11th and 21 points clear of the relegation zone.
Fabrizio Romano wrote in May that Mari’s move was “done and sealed”, with personal terms already agreed and the obligation to buy active.
Mari ended up making 31 appearances for Monza in 2022/23, despite missing part of the season due to a stabbing incident.
The 29-year-old was one of a number of people wounded by a man whilst in a supermarket with his wife and child.
Fortunately, all three escaped the incident, though Mari required surgery and missed the remainder of Monza’s games in 2022.
“The surgery was a relatively simple one,” said Osvaldo Ciara, the director of the general surgery and trauma team at the Niguarda hospital in Milan.
“Luckily there were only two damaged muscles.
“(Marí’s) muscular mass is such that the length of the knife that was used couldn’t pass through the rib cage and hit his lung.”
AC Monza CEO, Adriano Galliani told Sky Italia: “He had his son in a trolley and his wife next to him. He didn’t notice anything. He then felt something painful in his back, which was the criminal’s knife.
“Unfortunately, he also saw the criminal stab someone in the throat. He saw everything that happened and it was deeply disturbing.”
Mari returned to the Monza team after the turn of the year, and he went on to feature in all but one of their games from January to June.
The Spaniard’s imminent transfer seems like good news for all parties, with Mari having a positive impact with his new club and Arsenal set to profit.
