Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were both heavily linked with the Spaniard this past summer.
Arsenal are unlikely to get a Christmas card from Tottenham Hotspur this month, but they do owe their North London rivals a big thank you.
Back in the summer, the Gunners and Spurs were going after the same player in the form of Dani Ceballos.
Arsenal wound up doing more to get him, agreeing to pay a £15 million loan fee – and the entirety of his £2.8 million-a-year salary – and time has proven that Tottenham dodged a big bullet.
That’s because the 23-year-old hasn’t exactly proven a good return for the money as of yet.
The Spanish midfielder, who has been injured since October, has managed 906 minutes of football across all competitions this season.
That’s the equivalent of 10 matches and considering Arsenal committed to paying a total of £17.8 million to rent him, it has been a horrendous bit of business by the Emirates Stadium club.
Tottenham wound up paying for Giovani Lo Celso in a hefty loan agreement too, but at least Jose Mourinho has the option to make that permanent in the summer, whereas Ceballos will be heading back to Real Madrid whatever happens.
All isn’t quite lost with Ceballos.
After all, the Gunners are on the brink of hiring Mikel Arteta, their former midfielder, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can help his compatriot reach the next level.
Problem is, the Real star is guaranteed to be leaving in May and therefore you wonder if Arteta will prefer to use players that he knows will be there for him in the long term.
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