Arsenal get more money for Carlos Vela

It turns out Arsenal weren't that desperate to bring back Carlos Vela after all. Despite reports that Arsenal were ready to bring back the 25-year old Mexican, it turns out they were far more interested in the money he could bring, either through being sold by Real Sociedad, allowing Arsenal to get 50% of the fee, or by having his buy-back clause bought out by Sociedad. The latter has now happened.

Real Sociedad today announced that Vela has signed a new four-year contract; obviously, that scraps Arsenal's buy-back clause, for which Sociedad have reportedly paid Arsenal £8.8m, with the possibility of £4m in add-ons and a 20% sell-on clause. All told, this means Arsenal have gotten nearly £16m for the player since his move to Sociedad in 2011, originally on loan, which seems rather good negotiating from the club.

That's a decent amount of money, and will likely be used for wages and transfer fees in the near future; so while Vela won't contribute directly for Arsenal next season, he may have done his part.