Arsenal are to complete the signing of Gabriel Paulista from Villarreal, subject to the player passing a medical, for around £11.3m after the Brazilian was granted a work permit under the Football Association’s “exceptional talent” guidelines.
Gabriel was undergoing medical tests at the club’s London Colney training complex on Monday afternoon with Arsenal hopeful the centre-half will be available for Sunday’s visit of Aston Villa to the Emirates Stadium. The 24-year-old has not been capped by Brazil at any level, meaning he did not qualify for a work permit to play in this country, but Arsenal successfully appealed on his behalf, arguing he was of sufficiently high calibre and would “contribute significantly to the development of the game” in England.
The Home Office appeals process is administered by the Football Association, with the panel of football experts convened to judge the case duly convinced that Gabriel should be permitted to play in the Premier League. Those rules are expected to be tightened over the summer with the appeals option scrapped, but it is proposed an exemption threshold will be set at around £10m over which players from outside the EU would still qualify for a move. The deal for Gabriel should eventually rise to £11.3m, meaning he would have been granted clearance even under the proposed new rules.
While the Brazilian will join the Polish teenager Krystian Bielik in securing a move to the north London club, there remain doubts over the teenage forward Chuba Akpom’s long-term future. The 19-year-old made his fourth first-team appearance of the season in Sunday’s 3-2 FA Cup fourth round win at Brighton & Hove Albion and, having entered the final six months of his contract, has been offered a new three-year deal at the club. However, a trio of foreign clubs – Twente, Borussia Dortmund and Feyenoord – are all considering making pre-contract offers and could lure him away for nothing in the summer.
That has left Akpom considering his options. Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez and, arguably, Yaya Sanogo – who has been loaned out to Crystal Palace – are all ahead of him in the pecking order at the club through whose academy he has graduated. The teenager, who joined Arsenal when he was six, is seeking greater senior involvement and may even wait to consider what offers materialise from English clubs, who would have to pay Arsenal a compensation fee, in the summer.