Mikel Merino has been left out of the Real Sociedad squad for their opening La Liga game of the season. Sociedad will host Rayo Vallecano tomorrow, and have announced the 24 players who will be involved.
Explaining the decision, Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil said: "I’ve left Merino out of the squad as there are talks with other clubs and this is the best solution now.
"He was ready to help the team. We will see if he will be with us next week or not. There are open negotiations with other clubs.”
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Merino, 28, has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal ever since returning from Euro 2024. And negotiations seemingly ramped up this week when Edu, the Premier League club's sporting director, flew to Spain to negotiate a deal.
The Gunners were reported to have agreed personal terms with the player, but were said to be struggling to settle on a fee with Sociedad. And in his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the Wolves clash today, Mikel Arteta was coy on the speculation.
The Spaniard was pressed on whether he would be adding to his squad before the transfer deadline of August 31. Asked if he 'liked Mikel', the manager at first tried to laugh off the question, replying: “If I like myself, you mean?”
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He then shut down talk of a deal, adding: “You know that I cannot talk about any other players. After the (last) season we had two objectives.The main and most important one is make sure we are still in love with our players. Then, OK if there are still opportunities in the market we will look at them."
Sociedad's selection announcement is the clearest indiciation yet that the club are preparing to part ways with Merino. The fee is expected to be in the region of £29million.
Merino himself is yet to speak publicly on his future, but his now a cult hero in his homeland following his exploits in Germany this summer. His extra time header against the hosts in the quarter-final gave Spain a 2-1 win, and he marked the goal by recreating his father's (Miguel Merino) celebration after he scored in the same stadium more than 30 years ago.
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Merino, 28, has been at Sociedad ever since 2018, following an underwhelming one-season stint with Newcastle. He's since made 242 club appearances, scoring 27 times.
Should he sign at the Emirates, he will become the club's third summer signing after David Raya made his loan move from Brentford permanent and Riccardo Calafiori arrived from Bologna. Arteta is likely to want him registered in time to be available for the game with Aston Villa on August 24.
