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Deal agreed: Arsenal seal deal to secure 2nd signing, player to report for pre-season

By on June 11, 2018

According to Football London, Sokratis Papastathopoulos’s £16m move to Arsenal has been delayed but it will be wrapped-up in time for him to begin pre-season training in early July.

Arsenal have been strongly linked with Sokratis in recent months with the Telegraph reporting last week that a £16m deal had been agreed with Borussia Dortmund for his signature.

Head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has supposedly been leading the negotiations and struck a deal to re-sign the Greek international centre-back five years after signing him for Dortmund from Werder Bremen.

The paper says a medical has been done and terms over a 3-year deal agreed, however, despite all the reports of a ‘done deal’, fans have been sitting here patiently waiting for a formal announcement or a reason for the delay. Until now…

Football London are citing a report from Kicker that has the answer as the German publication claims Dortmund have delayed any formal announcement until July 1st as they want the transfer to go through the next financial year.

That means we’ll have to wait a little longer before Sokratis is confirmed as an Arsenal player but the defender will be on board in time to begin pre-season training – which will commence the week beginning July 2nd.

Greece aren’t at the World Cup so Sokratis will be free to start his Arsenal career on the opening day of pre-season and have plenty of time to get to know his new team-mates and surroundings.

He should take part in the clubs tour of Singapore and play in the International Champions Cup against Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain before heading back to London to continue our pre-season schedule.

MORE: Arsenal table £26m winger bid

The 30-year-old is therefore set to become our second signing of the summer following the arrival of Stephan Lichtsteiner on a free transfer from Juventus but he’s not expected to be the last new arrival as Unai Emery should be in for a busy summer…