Charles Watts, who reports on Arsenal for Goal, recently posted a Q&A video on his YouTube channel and during that video, the journalist spent some time talking about the Gunners’ chances of bringing Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos back to the club for the 2020/21 campaign following his loan spell at the Emirates during the 2019/20 campaign.
The £28.8m-rated midfielder has been linked with a return to the Emirates for the 2020/21 campaign. Back in July, The Times reported that the player is ‘close to extending his loan at Arsenal for another season,’ while earlier this week, the Express reported that the Gunners are hoping to secure the Spaniard’s signature on a permanent basis.
However, regardless of whether the Gunners would prefer to sign the player on loan or on a permanent deal, it does appear as though he made a positive impression on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during his time playing under him last season. As per the Express Arteta has confirmed that he would like the 24-year-old to be part of his plans for next season.
During his recent YouTube video, Watts had this to say about Ceballos and the Gunners’ chances of bringing him back to north London: “Arsenal and Real Madrid [are] pretty far off at the moment in terms of whether he [is] going to come back for another season on loan.
“Real [are] holding out, potentially, for a fair bit of money from Ceballos. [There’s] interest from elsewhere in Spain.
“Also, Real [are] struggling with [the pandemic] – the financial implications brought on by [the pandemic] might not be bringing in too many players this summer, so Ceballos may well be an option for [Zinedine] Zidane, even though Zidane hasn’t really rated him or used him before.”
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Ceballos spent some time on the sidelines due to injury during his time at Arsenal, however, he still performed well in a variety of different areas for the Gunners, as he completed the third-highest number of key passes per game (1.2), the fourth-highest number of dribbles per game (1.1) and the joint-second highest number of tackles per game (1.9) of any Arsenal player in the Premier League last term, as per WhoScored.
With that in mind, it isn’t too surprising that Arteta seemingly wants to keep him at the club for next season, however, judging by Watts’ comments during this recent YouTube video, he doesn’t appear to be very confident about the Gunners’ chances of bringing Ceballos back to the Emirates for next season at present, with the reporter even suggesting that the player may remain at Real Madrid.