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David Tully Jul 27th 2026
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Former Newcastle and West Ham manager Alan Pardew has backed Arsenal to secure the signing of Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr this summer.
The Gunners are believed to be exploring a move for the Brazilian international, and speaking on talkSPORT (quotes via Metro), Pardew said that there are at least three important reasons why he thinks a transfer is likely:
“What a signing that would be. I think this is a deal that will happen. The reason I think that is he’s got history with Jose Mourinho, he’s at Real Madrid, he’s got a year left on his contract. They’ve been trying to get him to sign a new deal for a long time now.”
“When you think about the other side of the coin, the new champions of the Premier League… you’re in London, you’re not in Newcastle, you’re not in Manchester, you’re in London.”
“You’re playing for the champions Arsenal, they’ll put you in a house in Regent’s Park, you can fly in and fly out your family at will because you’ll have enough finance to do it. I think it’s a tempting proposition.”
Real Madrid have set their asking price for Vinicius
Reports in Spain claim that President Florentino Perez won’t consider bids of less than €160m (£137m), despite the player having such a short amount of time left on his contract.
There is a chance that the La Liga giants will soften that stance the closer we get to the end of the transfer window, if it becomes clear that Vinicius won’t sign a new deal and could end up leaving on a free transfer next year.
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Arsenal ARE prepared to meet his wage demands
The Telegraph have confirmed that Vinicius’s £400,000 a week salary would not be an obstacle to the Gunners making a move for the 26-year-old.
There is even scope to offer him an increase on his current wages to persuade him into joining the Premier League champions. For now, it seems as if the price tag would be the main stumbling block to any deal being agreed.
David Tully
David Tully
David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for the Football News Network.