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Arsenal have completed their first transfer deal of the summer by making Pablo Mari’s loan move to Monza permanent.
The Spanish defender joined the newly promoted Serie A club at the start of the current season, initially on loan, but with a compulsory purchase option included in the event that they managed to avoid relegation back to Serie B.
That option valued the player at £6.1 million.
A win over Spezia at the weekend guaranteed their safety, so now the agreement comes into force.
His career at Monza was interrupted for a while after he was caught up in a violent incident whilst shopping with his wife at a local supermarket. A shopworker was stabbed to death and Mari received non-life threatening injuries.
Mari joined the Gunners initially on loan from Brazilian side Flamengo, before that too was made permanent. However, he found first-team opportunities hard to come by under Mikel Arteta.
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.