The transfer window has only just closed (thank God), but still the papers reel out daily gossip.
At Empire of the Kop, we’re choosing to ignore the majority of it, for reasons explained to you by this piece we produced in the summer, but reckon this story in the Mirror (and everywhere else) linking Dani Ceballos has legs.
Ceballos is a 19-year-old central midfielder who plays for La Liga strugglers Real Betis. He starred for Spain in the Under-19 Euros earlier in the summer, and most importantly, his contract is up at the end of the season. – and we’ve been scouting him so far this term.
This means that any club can freely approach him from January 1st and secure him on a Bosman free transfer for summer 2016 – much like we did with James Milner and Danny Ings this window just gone.
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For this reason, Ceballos will be either be a cheap purchase in January, or a free one in the summer. Economically the potential deal is risk free, although Arsenal are also being linked with the man dubbed ‘Cesc Fabregas 2.0’.
It’s always slightly exciting to be linked with a mercurial Spaniard; probably because of how much Xabi Alonso used to spoil us – although Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto somewhat bucked the trend under Brendan Rodgers.
We’ll watch this space though, and Ceballos’s progress this season with interest.