Ezequiel Garay is very close to joining Valencia CF, the deal has been struck between Valencia CF and Zenit, Valencia CF would have to pay them around 18 million euros and the player would get a rather big 3.5 million salary per year, not including bonuses, with the potential to reach 4 million euros.
The deal would not be finalized though until Shkodran Mustafi completes his medical in London and officially signs for Arsenal in a deal worst 41 million euros. Initially Arsenal FC were only willing to spend 30 million euros on the player, then increased their offer to 35 million, ultimately being forced to dish out 41 million euros because of the looming end of the summer transfer window.
Aymen Abdennour is also close to leaving Valencia CF for Turkish club Besiktas, as Valencia CF is looking to offload him due to his extremely high salary and disappointing performances for Valencia CF since he arrived there. Valencia CF is looking to keep Vezo and Santos as backups, hoping they would improve as they are still young and can become better yet.
Replacement for Aymen Abdennour would be Sidnei who's one of Mendez agents and the transfer fee for his would be in the region of 10 million euros.
The arrival for Garay is great, he is a great defender, experienced, strong, hard working, but of course the sale of Mustafi is terrible. Coupling Mustafi with Garay would have been amazing and it would have given Valencia CF one of the best defenses in Spain just like that. Garay is someone who commands the back line and as we saw when Otamendi was here and commanding the back line, the defense did much better when taking orders from an experienced and confident defender.
The departure of Aymen is great, get rid of his high salary and his error prone ways and make way for a new defender. The issue is that Sidnei is the first option, though with Lim and his friend Mendez being so unpopular right now it may force another option.
The second option and one which makes more sense, seems like a better option overall is Marcos Rojo. Manchester United are not counting on the player anymore and since he came in for around 14 million euros, while being on the periphery now, he is likely to cost Valencia CF bellow 10 million euros, possibly making a loan deal with Manchester with the option to purchase the player at the end of the season for 10 or so million euros.
If Garay and Rojo arrive I'd be okay with it, not excited or great about it, but okay. We'd lose out on Mustafi, but improve significantly on Aymen, so ultimately a decent deal.
The deal would not be finalized though until Shkodran Mustafi completes his medical in London and officially signs for Arsenal in a deal worst 41 million euros. Initially Arsenal FC were only willing to spend 30 million euros on the player, then increased their offer to 35 million, ultimately being forced to dish out 41 million euros because of the looming end of the summer transfer window.
Aymen Abdennour is also close to leaving Valencia CF for Turkish club Besiktas, as Valencia CF is looking to offload him due to his extremely high salary and disappointing performances for Valencia CF since he arrived there. Valencia CF is looking to keep Vezo and Santos as backups, hoping they would improve as they are still young and can become better yet.
Replacement for Aymen Abdennour would be Sidnei who's one of Mendez agents and the transfer fee for his would be in the region of 10 million euros.
The arrival for Garay is great, he is a great defender, experienced, strong, hard working, but of course the sale of Mustafi is terrible. Coupling Mustafi with Garay would have been amazing and it would have given Valencia CF one of the best defenses in Spain just like that. Garay is someone who commands the back line and as we saw when Otamendi was here and commanding the back line, the defense did much better when taking orders from an experienced and confident defender.
The departure of Aymen is great, get rid of his high salary and his error prone ways and make way for a new defender. The issue is that Sidnei is the first option, though with Lim and his friend Mendez being so unpopular right now it may force another option.
The second option and one which makes more sense, seems like a better option overall is Marcos Rojo. Manchester United are not counting on the player anymore and since he came in for around 14 million euros, while being on the periphery now, he is likely to cost Valencia CF bellow 10 million euros, possibly making a loan deal with Manchester with the option to purchase the player at the end of the season for 10 or so million euros.
If Garay and Rojo arrive I'd be okay with it, not excited or great about it, but okay. We'd lose out on Mustafi, but improve significantly on Aymen, so ultimately a decent deal.