Arsenal and Dani Ceballos: Gentleman’s agreement nice but nothing

Arsenal signed Dani Ceballos on loan without an option-to-buy clause. Although there are reports of a gentleman’s agreement being put in place, it means little.

On Thursday, Arsenal made their first two serious moves of the summer transfer window. One of those official confirmations was the loan signing of Dani Ceballos, the Real Madrid midfield joining for one season in search of regular first-team football, something that he is not expecting under Zinedine Zidane.

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Ceballos is a central, creative midfielder who, in principle, will replace the outgoing Aaron Ramsey — in practise, it is very different as Ramsey is a unique player that almost no individual can replace like-for-like. He is also one of the brightest young talents in European football.

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As he displayed with a series of sublime performances in the summer’s under 21 European Championships, which his Spain won, the 22-year-old quickly established himself as a terrific future name. The problem for him at Real is that he is competing with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. Gametime is difficult to come by, naturally. So he will be useful in the here and now, particularly considering the dearth of central midfield currently in the squad in Ramsey’s wake.

But where Ceballos’ true value comes in is via his potential. He is not yet the finished product. With the number of games that he has played, he can’t be. His long-term prospects are reportedly extremely bright, and this is what made him such hot property this summer. But a loan deal, as you might have realised, does not access these future prospects.

It is reported that head of football Raul Sanllehi attempted to insert an option-to-buy clause into the Ceballos deal, such that Arsenal, if they liked what they saw, could exercise a clause for a certain, agreed price next summer and Real would have to accept the bid. Madrid, though, said no.

There is also talk of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, suggesting that Real will at the very least listen to north London offers and might be slightly more lenient towards them. But in reality, such an agreement means very little unless it is in writing, embedded into the original deal and contract, which it is not.

And amidst all of this, Ceballos has openly said that he wants his future to be at the Bernabeu and that any move this summer would purely be to seek out regular game time, not to scout out a potential career destination. Obviously, things change and Arsenal are not going to harm their chances of signing Ceballos permanently in the future, but it seems as though Ceballos will not be at the club for long.

That does not mean that signing Ceballos on a temporary basis is a bad thing. He will still help in the present, and God knows Arsenal need all the help they can get to reclaim a Champions League spot. But it is the years down the line that will see Ceballos truly inherit his talent, and those are years that likely will not come at the Emirates.