Arsenal have agreed a £7.9m (€9m) fee with Werder Bremen for Mertesacker, 26, and will pay Fenerbahce £6.2m (€7m) for Santos, who is 28.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday morning, Germany manager Joachim Low revealed that he had given Mertesacker dispensation to travel to London and sign for Arsenal.

Low said: "Per knocked on my door yesterday late evening. He told me that he received an offer, I gave him one day off [to sort things out]. I expect him to be back at the German camp later."

Werder general manager Klaus Allofs has confirmed that Mertesacker has long wanted to move to the Emirates.

He told Sportinformationsdienst: "Per has had the wish to force his career [for] some time. He wanted to play for a big European club. Arsenal was always his favourite club."

Werder Bremen's media director Tino Polster has also stated that the defender is in England as talks continue over a move.

"Arsenal has sent a request to us. Both clubs are in talks. Per travelled to London," Polster said.

Reports in Germany say that 6ft 6in Mertesacker has agreed an £80,000-a-week (€90,000) deal while Santos is said to have negotiated an Arsenal contract worth £40,000-a-week (€45,000) after they had met Fenerbahce's asking price for the attacking full-back.

just look at the pic of PER MERTESACKER... sensual no?

This post has been edited by slcroy: Aug 31 2011, 12:23 AM

I think 15mil will get arteta to arsenal. Come on wenger!

7M for Santos? Thats a lil exp for a player like him. I expect about 5M. Anyway, Wenger has money now.
Dempsey? This is really a surprise. I like him, a very good player in eyeing goals and a good goal poacher but where does he fit? We have Gervinho and Robin plus Park.

i think... gary cahill would end up at spurs

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,11672_7139075,00.html

come on come on! this has got to be the most exciting transfer season ever for us!

I think at least 25M bro. He is the core player of Everton. Moyes never sells his players cheap

Wenger has always been a fan of Arteta. But a move for him is very unlikely to happen

1. He's vital player for Everton
2. Cost a bomb
3. Very little resale value
4. He's 30 years old
5. Fragile like Van Persie

20 mil la ok? steady?

Unfortunately Arsenal is the one with the cards to play now not Everton.

Everton desperately need the money or soon they will go into administration

i think AW should not be satisfied with just Merterscker. he whould go all the way and sign cahill and sanba as well...

squilaci and johan djouru should be written off already by now. and vermaelen should only be treated as a bonus that only availabe in the short time he is fit ...

actually RVP should also be treated the same..

dempsey...proven solid BPL experience

good choice

I still don't think Wenger signed enough defender. Santos replace Clichy. Per replaces Gallas (which I don't think Kos is first team material yet but he is more to like rotating players). No other back up for like say Sagna or Santos? Gibbs enough?
I was curious why we were complaining about missing Clichy and not signing new LB rather than saying we missed Eboue. Just some of my thoughts

transfer window closing has never been this exciting for the recent seasons.
as kanelee mentioned, let's see if we can buy "thanks 82" MU shirts in the end of the season

Pure orgasm...haha

scott parker to spuds? damn

agree with you on cahill ..players with proven BPL experience especially defenders are always the safer bet...

Me rike ur post...!!

We should go for samba. Me no heart for cahill since bolton play hard balls.

Arteta 25mil? U smoking weed? He's value is 8 to 10mil. Anything above 10mil is a bonus to toffees.

force a modric!!

1 more defender. kau tim sao tong!!

Gunners draw Shrewsbury in League Cup

Squillaci and Djourou needs to change their defensive stances. They can hardly make decisions on what they should do in different situation. Most of the time they don't dare to go aggresive to make the first move, but rather wait for midfielders to track back. And when they do, they got pulled out of their positions and left midfielders clueless of whom they should be marking.