Valencia defender Crithian Mosquera closes a switch to the Premier League, with personal conditions that have already been agreed with Arsenal. The Gunners would like to sign the 21-year-old as a depth in defense and offer coverage for Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.
Mosquera has been in the spotlight for a while and came to the attention last summer and came close to a move to Atletico Madrid. In the meantime, AC Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich have all looked for him in the past year. However, it seems that Arsenal is in pole position to secure his signature.
A starting defender for Valencia, Mosquera has a release clause somewhere in the region of € 80-100 million, but with a year left on his contract, Los Che is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They had to negotiate with Mosquera, but after a delay in the contract offer and considerable interest, Mosquera decided that he will not sign a new deal with the club. That is why Valencia will try to cash in Mosquera this summer, in an attempt to prevent him from losing Mosquera for free.
Mosquera, by appointment with Arsenal, has made it clear that he wants to play for them and has rejected a contract offer from Valencia in recent days, according to Matteo Moretto. He is waiting for an agreement between the Gunners and Valencia, and the athletic report that is close by, with possible developments this week.
Valencia had initially demanded around € 25-30 million earlier in the summer, but seem to have dropped their asking price to € 20-25 million. The original offer of Arsenal was around € 12 million for Mosquera, but it probably seems to be closer to € 20 million. With more than two seasons experience from La Liga, it will probably still look like a bargain price for the Spain Under-21 International.