Malaga close to signing arsenal target Ricardo Alvarez

Malaga directors are set to meet with Velez Sarsfield officials in Argentina on Monday to discuss the transfer of Ricardo Alvarez.

According to Marca, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who had previously been expected to move to Arsenal, is open to a move to Spain after speaking with Malaga defender Martin Demichelis about the possibility of joining the Andalusian side.

Reports claim that Velez have placed a €10 million [£8.8m] price tag on Alvarez, while Malaga are reluctant to offer more than €8m [£7m].

Alvarez, who holds an Italian passport, has been linked with an exit after impressing in Velez’ victorious 2011 Clausura campaign with numerous European clubs, including Roma.

Malaga have been active in the transfer market so far, already clinching the signatures of Jeremy Toulalan from Lyon, Joris Mathijsen from Hamburg and Nacho Monreal from Osasuna.

Former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy also recently completed a switch to the Spanish club.

GoonerJay29 wrote:

if they do sign alvarez how are the gunners gonna react??

Indifferently, becuase none of us know who he is, how good he is or whether he's worth £10,000,000 or not. Furthermore, we've got plenty of attacker, old and young, and his signing isn't really required.

Arsenal have had an approach for Douglas Costa turned down by Shakhtar Donetsk, according to the player’s agent.

Cesar Bottega stated that Arsene Wenger’s side made an offer of cash plus out of favour midfielder Denilson for the talented Brazilian, but the offer was rejected by the Ukrainian club who are only interested in a money deal.

Bottega told calciomercato: "The Gunners offered the Ukrainian club Denilson plus an economic balance [cash], but Shakhtar said no, because they are not interested in Denilson and would like only money."

The Gunners are believed to have been interested in the midfielder for a period of time but are not the only Premier League team to have the 20-year-old on their radar, as Manchester United are also aware of his talents, but have not made any offer thus far.

Costa has spent the past two seasons playing in the Ukraine for Shakhtar after moving there in January 2010 from Brazilian side Gremio. His style of play and similar background has often led to comparisons with former Barcelona star Ronaldinho.

The Brazilian has made 40 appearances in his 18 month spell at Shakhtar scoring 10 goals helping the win the Ukrainian Premier League in each season since his arrival.

iftikhar wrote:Even with all these additions, how good will Malaga be!!! If Valencia, Villareal, Sevilla & Atletico can keep their squad (or get proper replacement) and beef-up a bit, Malaga will still be weaker than those. But they have a hell of a manager.

Khaledbarca wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:
Fail.com


malaga the most active club in the market??? arsenal the most senile???

if they do sign alvarez how are the gunners gonna react??

what about isco, valencia fans are you on your feets???

wow if they do thats just impressive

they did steal Hector Bellerin (RB/RW, 16) & Jon Toral (Midfielder, 16) from Barca this season.. !

So what they did to us & we had to accept it.. they had to accept aswell

btw hector & toral were getting 10K euro from Barca per season.. while @ arsenal they will get 350K/per season so!!

lenear1030 wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:isnt he the same kind of player??

None of us are going to be too bothered about not getting Douglas Costa, either.

i would. especially if he goes to another epl team....