I wonder if there might be something to it. Wenger can't be blind to his improvement, and he obviously liked Vela at some point. Probably still hoped he would come good when we sold him. We wouldn't have added the clause otherwise.

The reason we only got £3m for vela is that it was just a massive long term loan with potential to get a big reselling fee if we don't want him. 20 goals a season from the RW is nothing to be laughed at, and we may well need that with Walcott an unknown quantity for next season and potentially logner.

Aye, he's scored more league goals from the right wing this season than Walcott has ever managed.

Doesn't seem injury prone either. He's played 35 or more league games during each of his three seasons at Sociedad. He's added a couple of goals and assists each time too. He ended with 21 goals and 13 assists in all competitions this year, and almost all of them were in the league and Champions League.

He's a better all-round player than Griezmann who most people wanted us to buy in January for £20m+

The only question I have about Vela is whether he's mentally strong enough to do it at a big club

He counts as homegrown too, which is another small pro.

He would have to start (or be thereabouts) if we bring him back at the age of 25 and in the form of his life, that's the big issue for me. I could easily see him sulk or regress if he were restricted to a few cup appearances again. And probably with good reason, to be fair.

why do people keep talking about this? he hates the weather and culture here, cant speak the language, and he hates the physicality of the big defenders here. he also has an attitude problem - left at home because he forgot his passport, left off the mexico WC team despite being their best player.

he wouldnt want to come here, and i don't think he'd be a good acquisition, either.

Left off the WC team? Whatever truth fits your cause, I guess.

kamikaze wrote:

why do people keep talking about this? he hates the weather and culture here, cant speak the language, and he hates the physicality of the big defenders here. he also has an attitude problem - left at home because he forgot his passport, left off the mexico WC team despite being their best player.

he wouldnt want to come here, and i don't think he'd be a good acquisition, either.

He speaks very good English and has matured a lot. He's the one who wants to come back, which means he's fine with the English culture and everything else.

He said no to Mexico and not the other way round.

Seems to me you have no clue about his current situation. Read his latest comments.

at a time when we need to buy goals, this link is a no-brainer. we bring him in for a year. if he fails, we sell him back to Spain and be done with him. but i can't see how a guy who does 20 and 13 in La Liga is going to fail here

Claudius wrote:

at a time when we need to buy goals, this link is a no-brainer. we bring him in for a year. if he fails, we sell him back to Spain and be done with him. but i can't see how a guy who does 20 and 13 in La Liga is going to fail here

Soldado was 26m. We're talking 3-4m if his clause is real (plus signing bonus and wages I suppose). Either way a relative bargain.

To add to what Burnsy said, Vela is 25, while Soldado joined the scum at 28. Soldado's best years were behind him while Vela is coming into his prime.

Considering he can play across the front three, I say go for it.

Some rumours I read on twitter earlier from Spain. We want €12m for our clause to be removed. Sociedad saying they want to keep the player but can't afford that, we have offered them a deal where we buy Griezmann off them for €18m. He has a release clause of €30m and we have said subtract €12m from that fee leaves us with €18m.

All sounds a bit far fetched but I wouldn't exactly put it past us to make this kind of offer to them!

JazzG wrote:

Some rumours I read on twitter earlier from Spain. We want €12m for our clause to be removed. Sociedad saying they want to keep the player but can't afford that, we have offered them a deal where we buy Griezmann off them for €18m. He has a release clause of €30m and we have said subtract €12m from that fee leaves us with €18m.

All sounds a bit far fetched but I wouldn't exactly put it past us to make this kind of offer to them!

I'd love it if that was true. Vela is good, but I'd rather have the young French bloke with mad pace.

From what I can gather is he similar to Theo in that he doesn't get involved in the build up play, he can go missing from games but his main asset is his pace, movement and finishing. I don't know how good a dribbler he is either.

Griezmann would deal physically better playing wide, he won't be pushed off the ball, and had high energy.