Arsenal step up Vinicius Jr pursuit as Arteta makes game-changing promise

3 Aug 2026 08:28 BST | 4 min read

Vinicius Junior, Real Madrid, 2025/26 — © IMAGO

Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

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Mikel Arteta is ‘taking charge’ of Arsenal’s chase of Vinicius Junior and has already made the Real Madrid star a huge promise to entice him to sign for the Premier League champions.

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Vini Jr’s future at Real Madrid is in grave doubt. He has a year to run on his contract and negotiations over a new deal have so far been fruitless, despite all sides reportedly eager to continue their collaboration.

Arsenal are ready to step in and complete a historic transfer for the Brazil star, with FootballTransfers having revealed that they are willing to go all-in financially to make the move happen.

Current ETV

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

ETV Range

€96.2M - €117.6M

Arteta’s promise to Vini Jr

Arteta’s willingness to integrate Vinicius Jr into the Arsenal squad has been underlined by reports in AS, which have sent a warning to Real Madrid that the manager has promised the 26-year-old that the team will “revolve around him”.

The Arsenal boss has sent a message to Vini that underlines how central he will be to the plans at the Emirates.

This is an appealing message to the winger, who has grown frustrated at playing second fiddle to Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid. This has manifested itself both in terms of the contracts the pair have, but also in profile and importance on the field.

Resolution expected soon

Vini Jr’s future should be resolved soon, with fresh talks scheduled between the player and the club in the coming days. Should these fail to satisfy the player, it will fuel the prospect of a move to the Emirates Stadium.

However, Arsenal will have to break their club record transfer fee to sign Vinicius, with Los Blancos having placed a price tag of around €150 million on his head. This extravagant fee is unlikely to put the Gunners off, despite the former Flamengo man only having a year left on his deal at the Bernabeu.

Arteta admits Arsenal ae ‘very ambitious’ in the transfer market

Arteta has already spoken about Arsenal’s prospects of signing Vini, simply laughing when asked when the winger will be signing for the club.

But he then added: “Well, we are very active, trying to improve and evolve the team, that’s clear.

“We expect to have movements in the next few weeks, obviously, because we want to get better like anybody else and you can just see the transfer market [and] what we are doing.

“We won’t sit still and we are very ambitious about what we want to do.”

Arteta certainly wasn’t writing anything off when it came to a move for Vinicius Jr, who would represent the biggest transfer coup in Arsenal history and a statement of intent as the club seeks to win its first Champions League title.