So far, this has been the summer of Kike Marin. He's not typically an Arsenal insider, but he's been a figure in past stories (he was, for example, an early proponent of the Mesut Ozil deal). This year, though, with Arsene Wenger doing a lot of shopping in Spain, Marin has been at the forefront. He was an early and regular voice on Alexis Sanchez, among other things. Now, Sami Khedira.
Arsenal fans have been begging the man to comment for a couple of days now, and as usual, he's responded.
Con la llegada de Kroos al #RealMadrid la salida de Khedira parece aún más segura. El #Arsenal habló con su agente, pero pide mucho dinero.
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) July 14, 2014
@Goonar_Al Arsenal spoke to Khedira's agent, but wants a lot of money. Real Madrid yes will sell. ok?
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) July 14, 2014
Basically the situation, via Marin, is this - in the wake of Toni Kroos moving to Madrid (which is yet to be official, but seems to be pretty much an open secret at this point similar to Mathieu Debuchy's Arsenal move), Arsenal and Real Madrid want to do a deal, but Khedira('s agent) is holding out for a large wage. This seems to somewhat mirror this morning's report that a fee had been agreed between the two clubs - that may or may not be fully true, but two of the sides involved certainly have interest in getting a deal done, and the major holdup remains the player's wages.
It sounds based on Marin's reading of the situation that the deal is farther away from happening than Sport seemed to believe. I'm inclined to trust him more. One way or the other, it looks like this deal might take a little while.