Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wants 'important' Dani Ceballos to stay after Real Madrid loan

Dani Ceballos is impressing under Mikel Arteta after a difficult start to life at Arsenal
REUTERS

Mikel Arteta has confirmed he wants to keep Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos at Arsenal - but the situation is out of the club’s hands.

Ceballos joined Arsenal on loan at the start of this season and, after a tough start, he has begun to flourish under Arteta.

The Spaniard has been a regular for Arsenal since football returned last month after the outbreak of coronavirus and Arteta has been full of praise for his performances.

The midfielder’s loan is due to expire at the end of the season and he is set to head back to Madrid, with clubs in Spain keen to sign him.

But when asked if he would like to keep Ceballos at Arsenal, Arteta replied: “Yeah, we are talking to the club, obviously we don’t own the player.

“He’s not in our hands so the clubs will need to have a communication and see what we can do.

“I’m really happy with him, the way he’s evolving and I love how much he likes to play football – the passion he puts into every training session, and in every game, you just have to see his celebrations.

“Whether he’s on the pitch or on the bench, the way he celebrates shows how much he puts in and he throws his life into it.

“And again I’m really happy with him, I think he’s evolving in the right way and he’s becoming a really important player for us.”

In Pictures | Wolves vs Arsenal | 04/07/2020

1/20

The type of move for Ceballos is currently unclear but another year on loan at Arsenal could make sense for all parties.

Real Madrid had been planning to cash in on the midfielder this summer but, given the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the transfer market, they make not get the fee they desire.

Ceballos too is hungry for plenty of game time next season ahead of the European Championship and Olympics, and another year working under Arteta - as opposed to a new head coach - could be attractive to him.

Arsenal are likely to have a reduced transfer budget this summer due to coronavirus and consequently signing Ceballos on loan for a low fee would make sense.

Given the financial state of many clubs, swap deals between sides are expected to be more common this summer and Arteta is not against such transfers.

“We have to be open to different situations as you mentioned,” he said.

“And I think the market will give us the opportunity to do certain deals like this, but at the moment I cannot comment on any of that.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in