Arsenal’s loan deal to sign Dani Ceballos for this season will cost them around €6.5m.

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 03: Dani Ceballos of Arsenal celebrates after scoring his team's fourth goal during the UEFA Europa League group F match between Arsenal FC and Standard Liege at Emirates Stadium on October 03, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 03: Dani Ceballos of Arsenal celebrates after scoring his team’s fourth goal during the UEFA Europa League group F match between Arsenal FC and Standard Liege at Emirates Stadium on October 03, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Valencia were keen to get their hands on Dani Ceballos on a permanent basis but it seems they weren’t quite prepared to part with the large sums of cash needed to make that happen.

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Real Madrid, for their part, don’t want to let the player go for a small fee, so they’re happy enough to keep sending him on loan while dangling the prospect of a Real Madrid future in front of the player to keep him hanging on.

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Dani Ceballos of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Burnley FC at Emirates Stadium on August 17, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 17: Dani Ceballos of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Burnley FC at Emirates Stadium on August 17, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Initially, it seemed that Arsenal would have to pay a total of €10.5m for another season of Dani Ceballos (€6.5m wages, €4m fee) which is the price Valencia were reportedly been quoted.

David Ornstein, however, 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 his full €6.5m wage. Fabrizio Romano also confirmed this in his latest update.

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1301482549303279616

In Ceballos’s loan agreement with Arsenal, there is said to be no option to buy, let alone an obligation. If Arsenal want to buy him on a permanent basis they will have to convince Real Madrid to sell a player they believe could generate their biggest profit margin ever by stumping up a ‘stratospheric offer’.

They’ll also have to convince the player to stay in London. Ceballos still believes he has a future at Real Madrid. Not, however, as long as Zinedine Zidane remains their manager.

“There was never trust between the two,” wrote Marca last summer, who also explained it was Zidane who pushed Ceballos out on loan and only Zidane.

Real Madrid signed Dani Ceballos from Real Betis in the summer of 2017 for just £14.84m, a price not far off actual peanuts in football’s pre-Covid market.