Arsenal give Napoli until end of next week to complete £3.1m transfer of outcast David Ospina
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ARSENAL have given Napoli until the end of the week to decide if they want to keep goalkeeper David Ospina.
The Serie A club have an option to sign Ospina for £3.1million following his successful season on loan at the Stadio San Paolo.
But that agreement is due to expire on Saturday and Napoli have still to inform the Gunners if they are prepared to pay for the Colombian international.
Under the terms of Ospina’s loan deal, Napoli would have been compelled to sign the player if he played 25 games for them last season.
But he was dropped by manager Carlo Ancelotti one game short of that target and now does not know where his future lies.
Arsenal suspect that Napoli still want to buy Ospina, but only want to pay around £2million for the 30-year-old keeper who is about to enter the final year of his Emirates contract.
MATCH THE VALUATION
They are reluctant to lower their asking price at the moment and believe there are a couple of interested Spanish teams who could be prepared to match their £3million valuation.
And Unai Emery could even force Ospina to return to the Emirates and provide experienced back-up to Bernd Leno next season following the retirement of Petr Cech.
The club are also considering allowing young full-back Jordi Osei-Tutu to spend next season on loan at Hamburg to gain first team experience.
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Meanwhile, there is a further backroom shake-up taking place behind the scenes at Arsenal, with director of high performance Darren Burgess set to leave just two years after being recruited by Arsene Wenger.
The highly-regarded Australian was appointed to oversee the medical and fitness departments but is being replaced by Shad Forsythe, who is being promoted from his role as head of performance.
Burgess’ imminent departure comes a week after Freddie Ljungberg was promoted to Unai Emery’s senior coaching team, with Steve Bould taking charge of the Under-23 team.