Napoli could still activate their option-to-buy in David Ospina’s contract, but they only have until Saturday to take it up, according to a report.

Mark Irwin of The S*n reports that the deadline for Napoli’s purchase option in David Ospina’s contract expires at the end of the week.

If Napoli decide to activate it before then, it would cost £3.1m, but the fact they’ve stalled for this long suggests they don’t plan to do so. Arsenal believe Napoli still want to sign Ospina, but they’re just trying to negotiate a better deal at around £2m.

The Gunners aren’t willing to sell for less, however, and they believe there are teams out there who would be willing to pay the full £3m. Alternatively, Unai Emery could even force the goalkeeper to spend the final year of his contract as back-up to Bernd Leno.

Though it’s The S*n, this does seem consistent with other reports on the potential transfer. Arsenal do need to take a stand, because there’s not much point spending a summer negotiating an option-to-buy if you’re just going to let the player go for less despite the loan going well.

Ospina played 24 games and kept eight clean sheets, only dropping out of the team towards the end so Napoli’s mandatory purchase clause wouldn’t be activated. There should certainly be a team out there willing to pay £3m for him.