Arsène Wenger has given Arsenal’s supporters the statement signing they have craved with the €50m (£42.5m) purchase of the attacking midfielder Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, a move that has nearly trebled the club’s previous highest outlay on a player.
The manager had expressed the confidence that Arsenal’s increased financial firepower would permit him to complete a deal for one of the biggest names on the market. At 10.30pm on Monday he could celebrate a coup.
Ozil becomes the third most expensive signing in British football history, behind Fernando Torres, who joined Chelsea from Liverpool for £50m in 2011, and Carlos Tevez, who cost Manchester City £45m. The 24-year-old has agreed a five-year contract, which is worth a basic £150,000 a week, with bonuses on top, having completed a medical earlier in the day in Germany, where he was preparing with his national team for the World Cup qualifier against Austria on Friday.
There was jubilation from Wenger and the Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, with the latter describing Ozil as a “world-class player, who is one of Europe’s brightest young talents”. Gazidis also paid tribute to the support of the club’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke who, he said, “wants to see Arsenal winning titles and trophies and has absolute faith and belief in our manager to achieve that”.
“We are extremely pleased to have signed Mesut Ozil,” Wenger said. “He is a great player, with proven quality at both club and international level. We have watched and admired him for some time as he has all the attributes I look for in an Arsenal player.”
In many respects the signing served to rescue a testing transfer windowfor Arsenal, although there remained disquiet at the failure to sign a top-class striker, which had seemed the priority throughout the summer. The club failed in moves for Gonzalo Higuaín, Luis Suárez and Wayne Rooney while a bid to take Chelsea’s Demba Ba on loan broke down close to the deadline. Arsenal suggested that Chelsea had been reluctant to loan Ba to a Premier League rival, but it is understood that the west London club called off the deal when an agreement could not be reached over the size of the arrangement fee.
Manchester United have completed the signing of Marouane Fellaini fromEverton, the deal being concluded in the final minutes of the transfer window. Roberto Martínez responded to his departure by bolstering Everton’s midfield with James McCarthy, who joined from Wigan Athletic, and Manchester City’s Gareth Barry.
Fellaini’s arrival provided a happy ending to what had appeared a shambolic deadline day for Manchester United, as their attempt to sign Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera collapsed.
David Moyes identified Herrera as a potential target and it was believed United were willing to pay Athletic’s €36m asking price.
It then appeared three United officials had arrived at La Liga headquarters in Madrid to complete the formalities that would allow Herrera to finalise a move to Old Trafford.
However, it now seems the trio were imposters and had nothing to do with United at all. Subsequently, United withdrew from the transfer, even though it was established they had an additional hour to conclude the deal providing a deal sheet with the signature of both clubs and the player was submitted to the Premier League.
Insiders claimed that Moyes felt the buyout clause was too high and attempts to try and bring the fee down failed.
It means United, who were also said to have failed with an attempt to sign Sami Khedira from Real Madrid, were left to rush through the transfer of Fellaini. (Guardian)
