Carlos Vela to return to Arsenal

Jokin Aperribay, the president of Spanish club Real Sociedad has claimed Arsenal are close to exercising their buyback option on Carlos Vela with a £ 3.25 million bid.

The Sociedad boss has said that the two clubs are still tangled in negotiations over keeping the Mexican international in Spain, but he also revealed that Arsenal has made it clear that they will exercise their buy back option for the player.

It was Arsene Wenger who insisted on inserting a buy back option in the player’s contract before selling him to the Spanish club that would allow them to bring the player back at a knockdown fee.

According to the Sociedad president, he has been informed by Arsenal that they want the player to be at North London for the new season.

He was also asked whether the club would try to revoke that buy back option and buy Carlos Vela outright, to which, the Sociedad president replied that at the moment, there have been no discussion regarding that issue and as a result, it would be difficult to say whether he is near or far.

They will have to wait and see if they can accomplish something for the club with regards to the player.

Arsenal has been lacking a pure centre forward for quite some time and in spite of the signings of Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo, they still lack a player of the highest caliber and Wenger believes Vela to be the answer to his striker crisis.

Arsenal signed the player from his Mexican club after Carlos Vela impressed at an age group tournament but he never really settled at the club and was allowed to leave on loan several times before Sociedad took him on a couple of years back.