Arsenal & Celta Vigo agree partnership

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenal have extended their reach into continental football by signing a three-year collaborative deal with La Liga outfit Celta Vigo.

The Gunners already have a similar deal in place with Belgian side Beveren, and the new agreement seeks to assist in the development of young players for both clubs.

Arsene Wenger has increasingly turned to Spain in his hunt for Europe's brightest talents, and The Premiership side were reported to be close to formalising links with Malaga.

However they have now entered into partnership with Celta, in a move that could facilitate the arrival of non-EU stars to North London.

Arsenal have a deal in place to sign Mexican wonderkid Carlos Vela, although the forward will first spend time in Spain to gain European nationality and the agreement with Celta could provide a further outlet for such transfers.

The Spanish side have confirmed the deal, and, if in keeping with the Beveren model, could benefit from loaning some of Arsenal's bright prospects themsleves.

"Celta and Arsenal believe that this deal will benefit both clubs and we would like to express our satisfaction with the agreement," Celta said in a statement on their website.

I guess that's where Vela is off to then. Excellent news, this should allow Arsenal to get around the work permit problem associated with non EU players, and I suppose there are worse places than La Liga for a young player to learn his trade!

It'll be a few years before Arsenal get anything out of it though, but in the meantime I guess I'll have to start following Celta a little more closely

mchurl

good mave for the gunners and it will give them an advantage in bringing over south american players. They will be more likely to sign for arsenal now than say man utd because they know they will be playing for a few years in spain rather than belgium or somewhere. Spain has a more similar climate to south Americca than Belgium does and the language barrier wont be as big a problem