Arsenal waited until everybody had settled in for their Friday evening before announcing that Dani Ceballos would be back at the club for the new season.
Ceballos’ second Arsenal loan conditions
David Ornstein claims there’s a small change in the conditions of the loan from last season. In 2019/20, Arsenal paid an upfront loan fee to Real Madrid, but they split his salary with the Spanish club.
This time around, Real are waiving the fee, but Arsenal will pay the full wage. Romano also confirmed this in his latest update.
Though we don’t have exact financial details, that should come to around the same amount of money. It’s just a bit easier for the Gunners to pay it over the course of a full season, rather than upfront.
Ceballos has a contract with Real until 2023, so he’ll have two years left at the end of this season. Presumably, that’s when he’ll want to make a choice between staying in Madrid or moving on permanently. So it’s a big year for Arsenal to convince him.
More than that, the midfielder should immediately improve the side. They were performing very well with Ceballos towards the end of last season, so Mikel Arteta will want to keep that going.
“I’m very pleased to be back with Arsenal – I’m very happy to have come back to a club where I feel important,” Ceballos told Arsenal Digital.
“It’s true that I had other options, such as staying at Real Madrid and going back to the Spanish league, where there were teams interested in me.
“I spoke to the coach last year, before the [Emirates FA Cup] final, and told him that I wanted to stay at Arsenal and win titles. I’d been really happy with what Mikel had built at the club since he came in. I had a great time at this club last season and there was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to come back.
“I think everybody can see what Arteta is doing at the club. He’s only been here for eight months. There were three competitions we could fight for. We got knocked out of the Europa League, unfairly in my view, but then we won the FA Cup and the Community Shield, which were well-deserved titles.
“More than that, though, it’s about what he’s created here – there’s real positive energy in the dressing room, the players are happy and everyone is doing their bit. We’re bringing through young players, which I think is really important for this club, because it’s something that’s always been done here.
“Mikel is the right person to get this club back to where it deserves to be, which I believe is in the Champions League, competing against the best teams in Europe.”
Technically, Ceballos travelled to London early enough that he should be out of quarantine before Arsenal’s second game of the season against West Ham United. But he’ll only make it with a couple of days to spare, so might not feature.