Arsenal have made their move to sign Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey.
The Gunners are leaving it late to wrap up Mikel Arteta's fifth summer transfer as the window closes at 11pm tonight, but football.london understands the club are working on the deal.
Furthermore, reports in Spain say the north London outfit have told Diego Simeone's side that they intend to activate the £45m release clause in the Ghana international's contract.
And by informing Atletico of their plans to activate Partey's release clause, the Gunners will avoid repeating a mistake made by rivals Manchester United in 2013.
At the time, the Red Devils were interested in signing Ander Herrera - for whom they later did seal a deal - from Athletic Bilbao, but were unwilling to meet the £31 million release clause in his contract.
A £25.5m bid was made, only to be rejected by the La Liga outfit and United, therefore, missed out on signing Herrera.
Then-president Josu Urrutia explained why he was not willing to negotiate.
"Our club is different, it bases itself on sentiment. Our goal is not to make money. We consider Athletic a unique club and the players have to think like that," he said, as per Goal.
"We received the proposal [Thursday] night and we said that we don't negotiate for our players.
"For a player to leave, he first has to show that he wants to leave the club then deposit the clause."
In the summer of 2014 Man United ended up activating Herrera's release clause to finally bring him to Old Trafford and make him the first signing of the Louis van Gaal tenure.
However, all signs are pointing towards Arsenal avoiding a similar nightmare deadline day scenario United faced in 2013.
