Diego Simeone is keen to sign Joan Garcia for Atletico Madrid this summer, potentially spelling trouble for Arsenal’s pursuit of the goalkeeper.
Mundo Deportivo report that Joan Garcia is on the radar of many top clubs this summer, and it would be a major surprise if he doesn’t leave current club Espanyol in the upcoming window.
Arsenal have long been linked with Garcia, but Mundo Deportivo claim Atletico Madrid are also interested, with Diego Simeone pushing his club’s move.
Simeone sees Garcia as the perfect long-term replacement for Jan Oblak, with Atletico considering signing the goalkeeper and loaning him back out for a year.
Ironically, it could be former Atletico chief Andrea Berta in charge of Arsenal’s attempts to rival Atletico for Garcia’s signing this summer. Berta is expected to join the Gunners and start work in the coming weeks, having left Atletico in January.
It’s also worth mentioning that Espanyol face Atletico in La Liga this weekend. The media are always likely to play up reports of transfer interest in a player just before the two clubs involved face off against each other.
Garcia will be fully focused on getting his team a result, as Espanyol are just one point clear of the relegation zone as things stand.
Barcelona have also been linked with Garcia in recent weeks, but reports generally stress that Arsenal are the favourites.
The Gunners made a €25m (£20.8m) bid for Garcia on deadline day last summer, with the club having initially been assured that they would be able to sign Garcia for significantly less than his €30m release clause.
Once talks opened, it quickly became clear that Espanyol would only sell for the full clause, and the deal didn’t happen.
‘Release clauses’ in Spain are actually buy-out clauses, and they require the buying club to provide the entire fee upfront. So both the value of the transfer and the payment terms were ultimately beyond what Arsenal wanted to offer at that time.
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