According to The Telegraph, David Luiz has taken a pay cut to stay at Arsenal – and it helped secure permanent deals for Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares.
It’s claimed that Arsenal executives were working in recent weeks to figure out whether a new deal for Luiz was really possible, before confirming his extension on Wednesday.
Luiz has allegedly taken a huge pay cut from his previous £120,000-a-week deal at the Emirates Stadium, with Mikel Arteta and Edu desperate for him to stay.
What’s really incredible though is that the permanent deals for Cedric and Mari were made possible by Luiz and his decision to take a pay cut.
Arsenal have allegedly paid an initial £7million for Flamengo loanee Mari, who won’t even be able to play again until November having recently suffered ankle ligament damage.
Meanwhile, right back Cedric is staying long-term after an initial loan move from Southampton, though the 28-year-old is remarkably yet to even make his Arsenal debut.
It’s unclear just how much of a cut Luiz has taken, but for it to clear enough room on the wage bill for two long-term signings, it must have been a considerable drop.
The Brazilian clearly has big fans at Arsenal, but after an absolute horror show at Manchester City earlier this month, he now needs to repay that faith on the pitch.
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