Madrid improve their offer at the training ground, and Arsenal’s Vinicius Junior pursuit stalls

Arsenal spent ten days getting closer to Vinicius Junior than any English club has managed. It took Real Madrid one afternoon at their training ground to undo it.

Sky Sports reported on Wednesday that Madrid and Vinicius held fresh contract talks at the club’s training base, that Madrid improved their offer, and that the talks were positive enough for the 26-year-old to stay beyond this summer. Sky’s paper round-up the same day carried the Independent’s line on how this looks from north London: Arsenal now feel it is increasingly likely he does not move.

Which is a long way from where the week started.

What Arsenal had actually done

On July 31, reports out of the Arsenal side of the story said the club had agreed personal terms in principle with Vinicius, with his agency Roc Nation set to carry a large Arsenal offer into talks with Madrid. His camp did not enjoy that framing. Within a day, Spanish journalist Ramon Alvarez de Mon reported that the player’s entourage denied any agreement.

The Athletic’s version sat in between. David Ornstein, Mario Cortegana and James McNicholas reported that Arsenal’s ownership had signed off on a deal and that the move appealed to Vinicius if he did not renew at Madrid, without confirming terms had been settled. TeamTalk put Arsenal’s willingness at 120 million euros against a Madrid asking price of 150 to 170 million.

Nobody at any point reported a bid. That gap between “we would like to” and “we have offered” is where this whole saga has lived since Ornstein first wrote on July 25 that Arsenal had agreed internally to explore a deal.

The money was always the story

Vinicius has been in a wage standoff with Madrid for most of a year. His current contract was agreed in 2022 and runs to June 2027, which means Madrid were 11 months from watching a Ballon d’Or runner-up leave for nothing. In late July, ESPN reported he was close to a new deal to 2030 worth 20 million euros a season after tax, rising to 30 million with bonuses, terms that would have made him the club’s highest earner. Then the talks broke down. Then Arsenal appeared.

Wednesday’s improved offer, put at over 19 million pounds a year by the Daily Mail, looks like Madrid finally paying close to the number they had spent months refusing. Jose Mourinho’s presence helped. Sky reported that the relationship between the coach and the player is already good, and that it fed directly into the tone of the negotiation.

There is an obvious tension in Madrid’s summer that nobody at the Bernabeu has to answer for. The club committed a fee ESPN reported as an initial 125 million euros, rising to as much as 140 million with add-ons, for 19-year-old Yan Diomande, a club record. At the same time they were arguing with their best attacker about a salary. Both things can be rational. They still look odd side by side.

Where it leaves Arsenal

Mikel Arteta’s side won the Premier League last season on 82 points, ending a 22-year wait, and have spent this window rebuilding around it. They have already taken Bruno Guimaraes off Newcastle, the 28-year-old signing a four-year deal after his medical, with the reported 75 million pound fee split into three annual instalments. They have money and a case to make to any player: reigning champions, a settled manager, a squad that just proved itself.

What they do not have is a way to force this one. A player under contract who wants to stay, at a club that has now moved on wages, is not a transfer that gets rescued by a late bid. The window closes at 11pm on Tuesday September 1, and Arsenal have about four weeks to decide whether to spend that money on a different forward.

The version of this that Arsenal supporters will replay is the one where Madrid stalled for a year and Arsenal timed the run perfectly. It might still land that way if Wednesday’s talks produce nothing signed. Contract negotiations described as positive have collapsed before, and this one has collapsed once already. For now, the club with the offer on the table is the one in Spain.

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