Girona negotiates the departure of Arnau Martínez, one of its emblems

GironaOne of the summer sagas at Montilivi is picking up speed. Arnau Martínez, one of Girona's figureheads, is negotiating his arrival at Valencia, who have been after him for days. This Tuesday, a meeting took place between the Valencian club and the Maresme footballer, during which they ironed out some of the small differences that separated them, contractually speaking. It will be more complicated to reach an agreement between clubs: Girona is asking for the full amount of the release clause, which amounts to eight million euros. For now, however, in the initial drafts of the operation, Valencia is not even close, not even including a percentage of a future sale. To reach a total agreement, someone will have to give in.

Last week Valencia presented a contract to Martínez for five seasons. The chronology explains that the footballer, after seriously considering it, presented a counter-offer. And, as journalist Nacho Sanchis has reported, the two parties have already met to give the final go-ahead.

The salary is the key to the operation: the same information adds that the Catalan full-back, who has seen his salary halved after Girona's relegation, going from 1.5 million euros net to 800,000 euros, has received a proposal close to 3 million gross per season for the five mentioned seasons. That is, around 14 million. Martínez's desire, moreover, is to continue his career in the First Division. In fact, Valencia is not the only club that has approached him in recent months.

The agreement between Valencia and Girona is moving along a different path. To begin with, negotiations are not advanced, because Valencia first wanted to reach an understanding with the footballer. It is now when they will seriously get down to it. It has transpired that the initial viewpoints are far apart: Girona is asking for the eight million of the release clause, and Valencia's first offer would be half, around four million. This figure would grow depending on bonuses for objectives and a percentage of a future sale, or with the possibility that Girona retains a percentage of the player's rights, but it would barely exceed six million, approximately. If Girona, which needs to sell to start moving agilely in the market, keeps its word, Valencia would have to improve it.

The talks between Valencia and the footballer, therefore, have revolved around this, because the club has proposed to the player that he have an increasing salary at Mestalla, which would allow him to present a higher offer to Girona. Arnau, according to sources from Valencia, has already given the green light for the two clubs to sit down and talk: he is Valencia's number one option, who want to sign him as soon as possible. At Montilivi, with the championship's debut on the horizon, Sunday against Leganés at Montilivi, at 7 p.m., they will have to find a quick alternative, because at the moment the only right-back left would be Gibert Jordana, who is on the second team's roster. The sporting management has noted the name of Alejandro Pozo (Almeria) as a possible reinforcement.

Unai Hernández, ready

The midfielder from Malgrat de Mar, Unai Hernández, who plays for Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, will be arriving in Girona in the coming hours. The Catalan midfielder, with a past in the club's youth academy and also at Barça, will arrive on loan with an option to buy and will become the fifth signing of a summer that has left a bad feeling on the sporting side: the squad has not only not changed much and is almost the same as the one that was relegated, but the pre-season results are not at all encouraging. In seven friendlies, Girona has only won one match, against Olot of the Second RFEF. Counting the dynamic with which last season ended, the Girona team has won one match out of the last fifteen.