Revealed: Why £16m Arsenal transfer has not been announced

Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ £16million transfer to Arsenal will not be officially announced until next month, claims a report.

The 30-year-old centre-back is likely to follow Stephan Lichtsteiner to the Emirates this summer, but the transfer will not be ratified until July and the reason why has now been explained by German publication Kicker.

Papastathopoulos has been heavily linked with the Gunners and on Monday Kicker claimed a £16million fee had been agreed between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund.

The German source claimed that Papastathopoulos would also undergo a medical at Arsenal last week, after personal terms were agreed.

And now they report that the deal will go through in July, with the Bundesliga club keen for the transfer to be included in the next set of financial results – running from July 2018.

Dortmund are apparently happy with their books for 2017-18 and looking to get into the black on their balance sheet for 2018-19.

The Gunners head coach Unai Emery and head of recruitment Sven Mislintat will be hoping the deal gets rubber-stamped on July 1 so that Papastathopoulos can report for pre-season training with the club on Monday, July 2.

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