Rumour: Santi Cazorla’s move to Atletico stalls over the Arsenal midfielder’s wage demands

Santi Cazorla

Arsenal and Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla is being targeted by Spanish champions Atletico Madrid with a view to making the transfer after the World Cup, but may see the mooted move fall through due to his wage demands.

Spanish paper AS report that Atletico are hoping that Cazorla will consider cutting his wages in order to facilitate the move. The club believe this is likely because of their understanding that Cazorla would be keen on a move back to Spain.

The La Liga winners allowed David Villa to leave to join New York City FC and whilst that transfer cut the wage bill the club still can’t operate in the transfer market in the same way that Real Madrid or Barcelona do.

Atletico defender Juanfran recently admitted that he has been trying to talk to members of the Spanish national team, encouraging them to join Atletico. The right-back mentioned that Santi Cazorla is one of the players that he is talking to.

“I’m trying to convince everyone that no one should leave, and with many of the selection [Spanish national team] I’m trying to convince them to come to Atletico Madrid. Santi [Cazorla] is one of them,” Juanfran said.

Spain lost their World Cup opener 5-1 to the Netherlands but neither Cazorla nor Juanfran played any part in the defeat. Spain know they now must win their next match against Chile to stand any chance of making it through to the next round.

With 66 chances created only Mesut Ozil (76) created more chances than Santi Cazorla for Arsenal in the Premier League this season