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What would you say to a striker who has scored 19 goals and added 12 assists for his Champions League-playing La Liga team in 45 appearances this season? Especially when you know that he began his career under Arsene Wenger as an Arsenal protege in 2005? Plus, as a bonus, he'll be relatively fresh and rested this fall since he won't be playing in the World Cup? (Forget, for a moment, that it's due to fallout with the El Tri leadership, even though said leadership has changed in Mexico's agonizing route to the 2014 World Cup.) And, in a bargain hunter's delight -- the kind that makes you boast to anyone you know who cares about Football Manager, if you were to make this move in Football Manager -- it would only cost you £3.3M of an alleged £100M "warchest" to land him?
That's what Arsenal's looking at with Carlos Vela of Real Sociedad (and teammate of French national Antoine Griezmann, another hot Arsenal Summer of 2014 rumor). Over the weekend, the Daily Mail ran with some comments he made about Arsenal's buyback option of £3.3M, versus the £24.6M it would take other teams to pry him from the Spanish side, and we have a Vela returning to Arsenal rumor in effect.
There's a pretty sumptuous highlight video here if you want to see Vela in action (#11), sometimes in tandem with Griezmann (#7).
The Mirror chimed in with the rumors as part of a roundup of Arsenal news surmising that the squad will remain largely unchanged from this year, despite the encouragement of new transfer window mascot Spendy McWarchester.
UPDATE: The usually reliable Kike Marin (despite his Groucho Marx avatar) just tweeted this:
De momento, el presunto interés del #Arsenal en repescar a Vela parece una cosa de su agente, que le busca una salida de la #RealSociedad
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) May 5, 2014
Which translates to: "For now, the alleged interest in Arsenal to give a second chance to Vela seems something of his agent, he seeks a way out of Real Sociedad."
(Or, as Google Translate translates Vela, "sailing.")
