Fiorentina are hoping to take advantage of Mikel Arteta’s contract stand-off at Arsenal by taking the 32-year-old midfielder to Serie A.
The Italians have targeted Arteta as they plan major changes this summer with two on-loan players Anderson (Man Utd) and Modibo Diakite (Sunderland) due to the return to their Premier League clubs and a third loanee Alessandro Matri heading back to AC Milan.
Arteta was in the Arsenal side that captured the FA Cup last weekend, their first trophy for nine years but has only 12 months left on his contract and has hit out at the club’s policy of only offering one-year extensions to players aged over 30.
He said earlier this week: ‘I don’t value players by age. For me, a much bigger asset is someone who has played 125 games in three years compared to someone who played 25, if he is 20-years-old.
‘That’s my opinion.
‘I understand the club point of view: “Mikel is not a £25m player because he is not 22 any more”. But I know what else I can give. So it’s to find the right balance between mentalities. We need to analyse and talk about it.’
Fiorentina, known in Italy as La Viola, qualified for next season’s Europa League by finishing fourth in Serie A and they see Arteta as an ideal foil for strikers Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gomez.
Wenger values Arteta highly and won’t want to lose the Spaniard he signed from Everton in 2011 but he is unlikely to push to break club policy and give him a long-term deal.
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