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Arsenal To Meet €18m Buy-Out Clause But Face Competition From City

By mac14 on February 11, 2015

Arsenal are ready to trigger Jose Gaya’s €18m buy-out clause but will now face stiff competition from Manchester City for the Valencia defenders signature.

We were strongly linked with a move for Gaya during the January transfer window but it’s believed Arsene Wenger decided to delay making any formal move duo to Monreal’s fine recent form.

But with continued speculation linking Nacho with a move back to Spain, the Mirror carry a report claiming that the boss will renew his interest in Gaya and activate his €18m (£13.5m) buy-out clause this summer.

The 19-year-old has become one of the hottest young properties in La Liga this season after breaking into the Valencia first team, so predictably he’s also attracting interest from Real Madrid – although reports suggest the player would prefer a move to the Premier League.

That would ordinarily put Arsenal in a strong position to sign the exciting left-back. However, the Express claim that Manchester City have joined the race with Manuel Pellegrini also ready to meet his buy-out fee at the end of the season.

Will Arsene be prepared to go head-to-head with City for the player? We certainly have more financial clout these days so we should be able to compete with them more than a few years ago, but Arsene is notorious for not getting involved in transfer battles – especially with the likes of money-bags City.

As it stands, we have two very good options at left-back but if Monreal does seek a move home in the summer then we’re certainly going to need to bring someone in and Gaya would be an excellent addition.

However, will we be able to beat the likes of City and Madrid to his signature? We’ll have to wait and see on that one….