VfB Stuttgart have signed Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos on loan with the option to make the move permanent at the end of the season, in a deal worth up to £5 million.
Stuttgart have paid an initial £500k loan fee for Mavropanos, 23, who Arsenal signed from PAS Giannina in 2017.
Mavropanos spent the past season on loan at the German club.
What is the structure of the deal?
Mavropanos will initially rejoin Stuttgart on loan. The German side have an obligation to sign him for £3 million if they remain in the Bundesliga. If they are relegated, they will have an option to make his move permanent.
The deal includes bonuses up to £1.5 million, meaning the permanent transfer is worth up to £5 million in total.
The deal also includes a sell-on clause.
Mavropanos has signed a one-year loan contract, plus an additional three years if his move is made permanent at the end of the campaign.
How has he done at Arsenal?
Mavropanos moved to Arsenal from his native Greece in 2017 but failed to win a place in Arsenal’s first-team.
He was sent on loan to Nurnberg in 2019-20 and joined Stuttgart on loan the following season.
In total he has made eight appearances for Arsenal in all competitions.
What else do I need to know?
Arsenal are moving closer to reaching an agreement with Brighton & Hove Albion to sign the England defender Ben White in a potential transfer anticipated to be worth around £50 million.
After seeing their initial advances for the 23-year-old centre-back rejected, the North London club are now progressing in negotiations with their fellow Premier League side and a deal is not far off.
Face-to-face talks between the parties have taken place and their relations are known to be very strong, raising the prospect that a consensus will be found for White to become an Arsenal player.
Brighton want to secure a guaranteed fee in the region of £50 million, while Arsenal are currently understood to be proposing a package of roughly £45 million plus another £5 million in add-ons.
Discussions continue and are likely to focus on the nature and achievability of those bonus payments, as well as the structure of the transaction. Personal terms should not be a problem.
(Photo: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
