Arsenal brought in Flamengo defender Pablo Mari on an initial loan until the end of the season, paying Brazilian club a fee of around €5m, although the North London side have an option to make the deal permanent.
Pablo Mari became Mikel Arteta’s first ever career signing, giving his side the left-footed centre-back his squad has been lacking.
And as per reports back in Brazil, Arsenal are seemingly looking to make Maria’s stay at the Emirates permanent.
When Pablo came in, he lacked game fitness and unfortunately had to build that up with the under-23s before getting a go into the first team, and with football later suspended due to global pandemic – Arsenal faithful saw much less of Mari in the infamous Red and Whites, which has everyone speculating whether Raul Sanllenhi would exercise the option to bring the Spainard to N5 over a permanent deal.
But Fox Sports back in Brazil claim the Gunners have a very limited choice as they report that they ‘must exercise’ option to bring him over a permanent deal.
Arsenal paid around £4 million for Mari in January and a further £8 million will help em’ secure his services beyond summer in a £12 million transfer.
And with the current financial situation caused by the pandemic situation we are in as of now, Flamengo would not certainly prefer to go back to negotiation table as they expect a pre-arranged agreement to stand.
Earlier this week, Pablo Mari in a Reddit Q&A session spoke of his desire to sign a permanent deal for Arsenal and thats how it looks right now.
“But you only know how big Arsenal is when you come inside.
“I feel like I’ve improved a lot in myself and can improve with this club to be a better player. So I am feeling really well when I signed the loan with Arsenal and I hope I can extend this to permanent with them because I am ready to fight together with Arsenal.”
Although, there have been suggestions that the Gunners might try to back out of the deal due to the financial situation at the Emirates.
In Ornstein & Chapman Podcat earlier this week, David Ornstein suggested that Mari is set for a permanent move. Ornstein suggests price to be £10 million, so it seems the deal would be around £10m-£12m interval.
“As such, I understand that it’s very likely that they’ll make the loan deal for Pablo Mari into a permanent transfer for around £10m…or Euros, they’re about the same now.
“That would satisfy Arteta’s need for the left-sided centre-half, but I’m not exactly sure what else they’ll do.”
However, as per current situation and things, it seems Pablo Mari will be full-time Arsenal player when transfer window reopens.
