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Arsenal have today taken the unusual step of announcing the exact amount they are paying Sevilla for Jose Antonio Reyes. We've got so used to hearing about "undisclosed" fees that it never occured to us that they'd tell us this one, but perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that the reported figures are somewhat larger than the true one, and with the stadium funding issues and so on, they don'r want peopel thinking they're splashing out £7m more on a player than they really have.
So, rather than the reported £25million or so, Arsenal are paying an initial £7.1m fee straight away. There will be 2 further instalments of £3.5m and £6.8m over the period of his four-and-a-half year contract, so long as appearance targets are met. This makes a total of £17.4million.
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is also reported as saying that the transfer (which at £17.4million still breaks our transfer record by about four and half million), will not affect the financing of the new stadium. As Arsenal have said all along, a certain amount of money has alwasy been available for transfers, we've just been waiting for the right opportunity to spend it. See Guardian.
Incidentally, having heard it pronounced the same as the English word "rays" on the radio several times in the last 2 days, it's worth pointing out that the correct pronunciation has two syllables. It's more like "ray ezz".
Rupe adds...
It is also being reported this evening that Reyes has completed his transfer, following a successful medical.
As of Thursday morning, however, he is yet to receive international clearance, and so he may be unable to play at the weekend even if the Spanish authoritiies do not insist on his one-match ban standing. |
