Why Arsenal have not completed Cristhian Mosquera transfer yet as £15m delay explained

Arsenal struck an agreement with Valencia to sign Cristhian Mosquera one week ago but official confirmation of his transfer is yet to arrive.

The Gunners will pay an initial £15 million to the Spanish club after sporting director Andrea Berta successfully negotiated a deal below their £17.4m (€20m) asking price.

As football.london reported back in May, signing a defender was a priority for Mikel Arteta this summer in addition to a striker, wide forward and back-up goalkeeper coming in.

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The latter of those has already arrived with Kepa Arrizabalaga joining in a £5m deal from Chelsea. Noni Madueke has since followed in his footsteps and looks to be the winger addition for the Gunners in a deal worth up to £52m.

Martin Zubimendi and Christian Norgaard have also signed from Real Sociedad and Brentford, respectively. That has seen spending go into triple-figures and it soon looks set to hit £200mi with Viktor Gyokeres' impending arrival key to that.

An agreement in principle, worth £63.7m (€73.5m), was reached last weekend but talks with Sporting CP are still ongoing. The structure of add-ons is what is holding up the deal with the Portuguese champions wanting the £8.4m (€10m) to be almost guaranteed.

The Mosquera deal meanwhile, is much more advanced with the player having travelled to London at the start of the week in order to finalise his move.

According toRyan Taylor of the Mirror, the Spaniard's medical took place on Wednesday but his transfer is yet to be formally ratified which is why he has not been confirmed as a new Arsenal player.

All relevant paperwork has been exchanged and therefore he could join up with the squad later into their pre-season tour of Asia.

Despite having his move from Chelsea confirmed on Friday, Madueke has not been included in the 30-man travelling contingent. That is because he has not yet taken his obligatory three-week holiday having featured for the Blues at the Club World Cup just 12 days ago.

The England international is much more likely to feature in the friendlies during August upon Arsenal's return to north London when they face Villareal and Athletic Club in the Emirates Cup. There is hope that Mosquera and Gyokeres can play some part overseas, though.

Arsenal's first pre-season clash is against AC Milan on Wednesday, July 23 before they take on fellow Premier League side Newcastle United four days later.

Their final game outside of Europe arrives on the final day of July with a North London Derby against Tottenham taking place in Hong Kong.