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Arsenal defender Pablo Mari is set to complete a permanent move to Serie A side Udinese at the end of the season.
The Spaniard move to the Italian club in January on loan, and has since started 12 games for them, and become a mainstay of their defence.
He has admitted that he likes life in the country and that the pace of Italian football suits him better than the Premier League.
Mari still has two years left on his current contract with the Gunners, but there is no future back for him at the Emirates, and here are financial reasons why they will be happy to let him go.
That is because when they signed him from former club Flamengo there were various performance bonuses inserted into the contract, including one whereby the Gunners have to pay the Brazilian club £865,000 every time he makes Premier League appearances, up to a maximum of 80.
Avoiding this sanction, plus any transfer fee that Udinese agree to pay will be a double whammy for the North London side.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.