Arsenal signed Cedric Soares on loan until the end of the season, when he would have been available for free, so what are they paying?

There will be many questions as we move forward about Arsenal signing Cedric Soares on loan when he could have been had for free in the summer given the agent involved in making that decision.

I don’t want to go all conspiracy nut on you, but when you watch Mikel Arteta talk about having watched Soares for years, his eyes move in a totally different direction to when he’s saying all that other stuff:

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1223240221267054594

Make of that what you will. It’s probably nothing, but it could possibly be something (see the end of the post).

Anyway, according to David Ornstein, Soares signing will cost a total of £5m, a figure that includes loan fee, salary, and other savings. Whether or not it includes agents fees is not clear at this point.

As Ornstein said on The Athletic as he replied to a question, “It was me who reported the £5m figure yesterday but not that Arsenal are paying it as a loan fee.

“The total package is worth around £5m to Southampton. That will comprise a loan fee, complete salary coverage and possibly other savings such as a loyalty bonus that would have been owed (I don’t know this for certain with Soares but it is not uncommon).

“Southampton get a good deal for a player who is out of contract in the summer and Arsenal get a six-month loan that is not costing them much more or less than many others comparable deals and they can review the situation in the summer.”