Arsenal have launched a club record \u00a318m bid for Valencia midfielder Juan Mata as Arsene Wenger finally prepared to open the chequebook.<\/p>\n
With their Barclays Premier League title rivals having already strengthened since the transfer window re-opened, the Gunners are now planning their own summer spending spree – beginning with the capture of the Spanish Under 21 star.<\/p>\n
Big spending: Arsenal are prepared to smash their club record to bring Spain’s Juan Mata to the club
\nClub officials spoke to the 23-year-old\u2019s agent and father – also Juan – with Mata now happy to discuss his future with the European Under 21 Championships complete.<\/p>\n
Skilful Mata can play in central midfield or on the left wing and was also part of Spain\u2019s 2010 World Cup winning squad – making one 20-minute substitute appearance against Honduras in the group stages.
\nHis eye for goal and assists are why Wenger is willing to smash the club\u2019s current transfer record – \u00a313m for Russian star Andrey Arshavin – to bring the Spaniard to the Emirates.
\nFormer Real Madrid youth player Mata was one of the stars of Spain\u2019s victorious Under 21 side in Denmark, scoring two goals in the tournament, and has been identified by Wenger as the man to help ease the blow of Cesc Fabregas\u2019 increasingly inevitable departure to Barcelona.
\nReports in Spain on Sunday evening suggested that Fabregas, currently on holiday in Ibiza with Barca’s Carles Pulyol and Gerard Piquet, will refuse to return to Arsenal for pre-season training on July 5.<\/p>\n
But Wenger may have to act fast to head off Barcelona and Manchester City \u2014 who are also vying with Chelsea to sign Udinese and Chile winger Alexis Sanchez \u2014 and Liverpool.
\nThe Gunners boss must also be alarmed that Inter Milan have moved to hijack Arsenal\u2019s move for Argentinian playmaker Ricky Alvarez.<\/p>\n
Sportsmail can reveal Arsenal chief scout Steve Rowley was in Argentina earlier this month to tie up a deal for Alvarez, but found difficulty in striking an agreement with the 23-year-old\u2019s advisers.<\/p>\n
And new Inter Milan boss Gian Piero Gasperini has targeted Alvarez as his first signing after tabling an official bid for the \u00a312million-rated man, who is also target for Palermo, Roma and Malaga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal have launched a club record \u00a318m bid for Valencia midfielder Juan Mata as Arsene Wenger finally prepared to open the chequebook. With their Barclays Premier League title rivals having already strengthened since the transfer window re-opened, the Gunners are now planning their own summer spending spree – beginning with the capture of the Spanish Under 21 star. Big spending: Arsenal are prepared to smash their club record to bring Spain’s Juan Mata to the club Club officials spoke to the 23-year-old\u2019s agent and father – also Juan – with Mata now happy to discuss his future with the European<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-228"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amharic.zehabesha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}