Guardian: Cazorla official, will play in final friendly

According to The Guardian, Arsenal have completed the signing of Santi Cazorla after completing his physical examination with the club, and will make his Arsenal debut next week when Arsenal travel to Germany for the final friendly of the preseason. Unlike some other reports, this one holds water due to its source: David Hytner, who has been reliable on this story from the start, when he and Sid Lowe first reported Arsenal's official interest.

We finally appear to be at the end of the road here, with the only step left being official confirmation from Arsenal.

According to Hytner, Cazorla has signed a four-year contract with Arsenal, with a fee of £16 million going back to Malaga. This makes Santi Cazorla the new record signing for the club, surpassing the £15-ish million Arsenal paid for Andrei Arshavin in the winter of 2009. If nothing else, this is good so people can no longer make jokes about Arsenal's record signing being Andrei Arshavin. According to a John Cross story Cazorla will be on £70,000 a week, but since he also says the fee is £20 million it's hard to tell whether that part is accurate.

Again, this is a pretty reliable report, as David Hytner has been on point with this story from its start. I would expect that Cazorla will be announced by the club soon: either today or early next week, with this morning being likely. So it's time to start scouting tattoo parlors and choosing which picture of Cazorla you want emblazoned upon your flesh. It looks like this is going to happen very soon. We'll have full coverage when he's officially official, so watch this space.