He had to be patient, but Mikel Arteta has finally got his man, signing Martin Odegaard on a permanent deal from real Madrid on Friday.
The attacking midfielder enjoyed a highly fruitful loan spell with us in the second half of last season – winning our Player of the Month award for March - and now he’s here to stay.
Just minutes after the deal was confirmed, the manager spoke to the media about the 22-year-old Norwegian.
"He brings a lot of things that he brought last season as well," Arteta said.
"He made us better, we needed more options, alternatives, creativity and players that can be morals for this football club. He is still a really young man but he has huge experience in different clubs already.
"He has a unique talent based on the way we want to play so I'm delighted that the club has made an effort and we have Martin on a permanent deal here.
"You’ve seen the numbers and what we did after Christmas when Martin was in the team and we had people like Emile, the team performed at a completely different level. He’s someone that we admire and he’s still at the age in his career when the potential he has is still immense."
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