Arsenal have been in touch with Vinicus Jr’s agency to present an initial offer to the Brazilian, according to reports in Spain.
The Real Madrid star currently faces an uncertain future after entering the final year of his contract at the Bernabeu.
The club remain confident that they can convince Vinicius to agree terms on a new deal, with talks currently ongoing over a long-term contract for the 26 year old.
Arsenal’s Vinicius Jr transfer bid gathers steam as ‘initial offer’ presented to Real Madrid star
Bernabeu Digital write that ESPN journalist Rodra has indicated that Arsenal have reached out to present an initial offer for Vinicius’ services.
The report adds that Vinicius and his representatives are holding out for more money from Real Madrid, but that the prospect of that happening in the immediate future currently looks dim.
Talks were apparently due to take place between Vinicus and his club this week, but that has now been postponed – and the Brazilian has no intention of returning to the table until Real Madrid up their offer.
The implication is that Arsenal know they currently have little prospect of getting a deal done as it stands, but are waiting in the wings ready to exploit a complete breakdown in talks.
If that were to happen, Real may have a strong incentive to cash in while they can rather than let Vinicus depart as a free agent next summer.
While normally we might discount this as a load of agent guff designed to put pressure on Real, there is plenty of credible reporting to suggest that Arsenal are indeed serious in their intent, with the story first broken by David Ornstein.
Vinicius is currently reportedly earning €25m per year (£21.4m) at Real Madrid before bonus.
Signing Vinicius on anything like his current terms would therefore absolutely smash Arsenal’s current wage structure – to say nothing of the transfer fee involved – with their current top earner, Bukayo Saka, currently earning in the region of £15.6m per year.
However, Arsenal’s finances are very healthy and they may consider it to be worthwhile to secure the signature of one of the highest-rated players in world football. He’s an upgrade on Gabriel Martinelli, anyway.