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Arsenal to reward Mikel Arteta with huge pay rise and put Kroupi among transfer targets
Arsenal will reward Mikel Arteta for ending Arsenal’s 22-year wait to be champions by offering him a lucrative new contract that will cement the Spaniard’s status as one of the best-paid managers in the world. The club are also well advanced with plans to strengthen his squad. Talks over extending Arteta’s deal beyond next summer were put on hold while Arsenal battled it out with Manchester City in the Premier League, although insiders insist there was an expectation he would have stayed even if the season had ended without a trophy. The 44-year-old has become the second-youngest manager to win the Premier League, after José Mourinho with Chelsea in 2005, and matched Kenny Dalglish’s achievement with Liverpool in 1986 in making a team top-flight champions in his first senior management job. Arteta has transformed Arsenal since he was appointed in December 2019 and it is understood his new deal is likely to reflect his achievements. His contract is believed to be worth about £10m a season, plus a £5m bonus for reaching the Champions League, but Arteta will be offered a large salary increase that some sources have predicted could mean he comes close to matching Atlético Madrid’s Diego Simeone. He is thought to be the world’s best-paid manager, earning a reported €30m (£26m) a year. Pep Guardiola is paid a reported £20m a year by Manchester City. Arteta will become the longest-serving manager in England’s top four divisions when Guardiola steps down after Sunday’s final Premier League game. Arteta, the eighth manager to lead Arsenal to the title and first since Arsène Wenger in 2004, will resume talks after the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain a week on Saturday. Arteta has been heavily involved in recruitment plans with the sporting director, Andrea Berta. The co-chairs, Stan and Josh Kroenke, promised in their programme notes for Monday’s win over Burnley that “there will be no standing still when the season ends”. There is unlikely to be the same outlay on players as the £250m Arsenal spent last summer, but funds are in place to make a marquee signing to rival the purchase of Declan Rice for a then-British record £105m in 2023. Eli Junior Kroupi, the Bournemouth striker whose goal against City helped Arsenal seal the title on Tuesday, is a target, although his club could value the 19-year-old at about £80m. He broke the league record held by Robbie Fowler and Robbie Keane for most goals scored by a teenager in his debut season with his 13th on Tuesday and joined the agent Moussa Sissoko – whose clients include the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé – this year in anticipation of a summer move. Kroupi, who has also been scouted by Real Madrid and Chelsea, is regarded as an option for the left of Arsenal’s attack as well as someone who could compete with Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyökeres for a central role. Arteta has made a forward his priority and there is strong interest in Julián Alvarez, although it is unclear how much Atlético would demand for the Argentina international. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would be the dream signing, but PSG are not expected to entertain offers for the Georgian. Other longstanding targets include Kvaratskhelia’s teammate Bradley Barcola, Nico Williams of Athletic Bilbao and Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon, who also interests Bayern Munich. Gabriel Martinelli would be allowed to depart if a suitable offer arrived. Interest in Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali could be revived, but Myles Lewis-Skelly’s performances as a midfielder may persuade Arteta to prioritise elsewhere. Ethan Nwaneri’s future looks less secure. He spent the second half of the season on loan at Marseille after signing a new five-year contract in August and is wanted by clubs including Borussia Dortmund. There could be a handful of other departures, with Christian Nørgaard linked with Ajax after playing 56 minutes in the Premier League since his move from Brentford last year and Gabriel Jesus – among the club’s top earners and with a year of his £250,000-a-week contract remaining – also surplus to requirements. Arsenal are in talks with representatives of the 16-year-old Leicester winger Jeremy Monga, who this season became the youngest goalscorer in Championship history, over a potential move that would involve a compensation fee being paid for the England Under-19s international. They have this year signed the defender Jaden Dixon from Stoke and the Scottish striker Evan Mooney to boost their youth ranks.
Real Sociedad lift Copa del Rey after Marrero shootout heroics sink Atlético
History has a pair unexpected heroes. Unai Marrero, a 24-year-old backup goalkeeper, born in San Sebastián and raised at Real Sociedad, saved two penalties in the shootout to put his boyhood club within a single shot of victory on the what his captain had called the night of their lives. Then he embraced Pablo Marin, the former ballboy who now walked towards him carrying all of their hopes on his shoulders, kissed him on the cheek and asked his teammate to take them over the line. So Marin, 22, and on as a substitute, did just that, stepping up and securing only the fourth Copa del Rey in la Real’s history, defeating Atlético Madrid from the spot. Last time they had won it, in 2021, it took a penalty. This time it took six of them; Mikel Oyarzabal, as he had done then, scored one during the 90 minutes on the way to a 2-2 draw and three more men did in the shootout. Back then, Real Sociedad had won the trophy it in an empty stadium, unable to avoid the feeling that something was missing. Now at last they had done it in front of thousands of fans in Seville – there to see a trophy lifted for the first time in 38 years. What a moment this was for Marin, for Marrero – already the shootout hero after another 2-2 draw in the last 16 and leaping about before all the kicks here – and for all of them, not least for their coach, Pellegrino Matarazzo. The man from Bergen County, New Jersey, with the degree in applied mathematics from Columbia University took over at La Real four months ago, revived a side that was threatened with relegation and now stood here in Sevilla at midnight holding the cup to the sky. Unknown back then, he could not be more loved in San Sebastián now. ‘It’s a joy to be able to bring joy to so many people,” he said. It had all happened on a long night with four goals, including the fastest in the competition’s history, and it had been done the hard way. But for Real Sociedad had the perfect ending, a cup run that included three derbies and two penalty shoots had concluded the way they wished it. “I was in my element,” Marrero said. “I’m still not conscious of what’s happened here.” Let’s begin at the beginning. The very beginning. It was 13 years since Atlético had been in a cup final and 13 seconds before they were behind. From the kick-off Real Sociedad went back to Marrero who hit it long up the pitch, multiple failures leading to a moment no one could have imagined. Nahuel Molina watched it sail over his head without moving. Giuliano Simeone was beaten by the bounce. Marc Pubill didn’t react. Matteo Ruggeri was beaten in the air. And when Gonçalo Guedes’ cross was met by Ander Barrenetxea’s head, Juan Musso was a little slow to react, the ball dropping in. Atlético equalised early when Antoine Griezmann slipped inside and Julián Alvarez let it run to Ademola Lookman. But Atlético were struggling and la Real took the lead again before half-time when Musso arrived too late for a free kick and, instead of the ball, caught Guedes with his fist. From the penalty spot, Oyarzabal – the Real Sociedad captain who scored the game’s only goal when they won the cup in this same but empty stadium five years ago – was the calmest man at La Cartuja scoring from the spot. This was his sixth final; he has scored in all of them. Atlético dominated possession thereafter but produced little until Julian Alvarez finally broke their resistance with six minutes to go. Letting the ball move across the front of his body, taking the defenders out of the game as it went, he hit a superb finish past Marrero. The pitch tilted, the momentum built, everything accelerating now, but somehow Atlético didn’t win it. Alex Baena put Marcos Llorente’s ball over the bar from four yards, Sorloth headed just wide, and then Johnny Cardoso was in, Marrero flashing out a palm to push past the post. And there was still time for Alvarez to win a free-kick deep into added time. He, though, hit the wall and Llorente struck the rebound wide taking it to extra time. Real were resurrected somehow, finding some strength that had seemed to have deserted them, belying the blow of having seen victory slip from their grasp. Llorente had to sprint back to stop Orri Oskarsson running through. Marc Pubill dived block with his chest, Atlético just about scrambling clear. Then Musso made a double save, first from Luka Sucic and second, even more remarkably, from Oskarsson. At the other end, Alvarez rattled the bar. All that in nine minutes. Time though was slipping away, chances drying up, exhaustion and nerves taking over as penalties and Marrero’s moment came ever closer, Marin’s too. History was sealed with a save, one last shot and a kiss.
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