Apparently we've activated his buy back clause.

Quick google turns up the Daily Star saying we're negotiating a price to scrap the buy back clause. That would be very Arsenally, negotiating extra money for a player we've already sold instead of negotiating signings.

Bolstering the Cavani fund. Woot!

qs! wrote:

According to who?

Sociedad president.

Seems very confident that that is the case.

Welcome back Carlitos

You would be out of your nut to not sign a player with 16 goals and 12 assist in la liga for £4m.

Just what we need to ensure we have quality on the RW with Theo out.

If true fantastic news.

Fingers crossed he brings his form with him.
Plenty of money left over for Griezmann or Morata or Balotelli too.

Vela and Balotelli in, Podolski out.

Would ppl be happy with that?

A lot of Gooners think he doesn't fit in.

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho 2h
Only eight players were involved in more goals (scored & assisted) than Carlos Vela in the top five leagues - 28.

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho 2h
Those eight players Suarez (43) Ronaldo (40) Messi (39) Zlatan (37) Diego Costa (30) Reus, Alexis Sanchez & Yaya (29)

Jed wrote:

Vela and Balotelli in, Podolski out.

Would ppl be happy with that?

Sure.

Klaus wrote:

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho 2h
Only eight players were involved in more goals (scored & assisted) than Carlos Vela in the top five leagues - 28.

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho 2h
Those eight players Suarez (43) Ronaldo (40) Messi (39) Zlatan (37) Diego Costa (30) Reus, Alexis Sanchez & Yaya (29)

Considering he plays for a team like Sociedad, it makes his stats even more impressive.

Pod plays on the left, vela won't see any action there. Either he plays up-front or cutting in from the right.

Podolski has an important squad role at the club, although he goes missing for entire games, he is a great player when the team itself is playing well. He is deadly in the channel between FB and RB.

Excellent news if true.

Plus he doesn't go to the World Cup.

#Freshness

I'd prefer Griezmann, but I'm still thrilled with Vela.

Add in a ST, CM, and a RB, and it'll be a brilliant summer.

Not sure he is what we need but I suppose you can't go wrong for that kind of money.

Hope he's got a bit of pace and strength these days and he's willing to fight it out on the pitch. His talent has never been in question. Capable of the sublime and lets hope he's ready to make an impact. #welcomenacho

Patters wrote:

Hope he's got a bit of pace and strength these days and he's willing to fight it out on the pitch. His talent has never been in question. Capable of the sublime and lets hope he's ready to make an impact. #welcomenacho

Think this is the main thing. PL defenders can really be hacks, especially if they smell any weakness. Pires had to go through an adaptation period, but he figured it out, same with Hleb really. Hope Vela can manage the way he plays to leave them on their arses rather than take a kicking.

He doesn't try to shy away from physical play anymore.

From someone who went to the AST thing a week ago:

Seems like the club is leaning more towards taking arbitrage than keeping the player but it's a no-brainer either way.

Irish gunner wrote:

I'd prefer Griezmann, but I'm still thrilled with Vela.

Add in a ST, CM, and a RB, and it'll be a brilliant summer.

Except in all likelihood this is the ST signing.

Not sure how I feel about it. Seems like he's had a season or two that are hard to ignore, especially at the price. But he's already had a go here and wasn't good enough and was too lightweight for English football. Plus there were various stories about his poor attitude and things like turning up to the airport for European away games without his passport etc. Seems like a typical Arsenal bargain bin maintaining 4th place signing instead of having a go for Cavani/Benzema/Balotelli/whoever.

Vela is the most fouled player in La Liga.

Jed wrote:

Vela is the most fouled player in La Liga.

Well, we're doomed.

for 3.5m, it's a no-brainer. either we get a player or we take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity.

This is a bargain signing for a player who is wildly undervalued due to Arsenal's brilliant forethought in inserting that clause. It's the kind of bargain signing that Wenger used to make. He's a gem of a player. With half of our wingforce having brittle knees we need a signing like this (if we are signing him and not just reselling him).

what did we sell him for? 9m? so sociedad paid us 5.5m to have him for 3 seasons while they paid his wages and developed him? have no idea why they agreed to such a low buyback clause, but whatever. chumps.

We practically gave him away IIRC.

We basically loan Vela to Sociedad for three season it's time he return home

On the other hand, even if that were true it means they paid £5.5m for 42 la liga goals, 28 assists over 3 seasons. That doesn't sound too bad.

Shinda wrote:

We basically loan Vela to Sociedad for three season it's time he return home

We've done a Barcelona / Chelsea LOL

Chelsea re-signed Matić for a decent sum. Luckily a clever mofo somewhere at our club had the foresight to insert that clause for Vela.