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Arsenal have confirmed 18 year old Spanish play-maker Fran Merida Perez, has signed a new long term contract with the club, thought to be around four years in lengh, slamming reports he is set to leave the club, and meaning he will fight for a first team place next season.

Wenger has been a huge fan of Fran who is currently on loan with Spanish Segunda outfit Real Sociedad, and has used him in the earlier parts of the season in the Carling Cup giving him intially a debut against Newcastle before further experience in the latter rounds at Sheffield United and then Blackburn Rovers, and has heaped praise on the former Barcelona trainee.

“Yes we have extended his contract, That was planned and it is good news because he is a very fine player. He is one for the future.”

“The reports I have from [his loan spell in] Spain are that he does well everytime he plays. Fran is very technical. He still needs to grow physically but football-wise there is no problem. He is an absolutely amazing player.”

The praise from the boss will no doubt help Merida, who is currently having to make do with little playing time with the Basque outfit, which has put already under fire coach Jose Ramon Eizmendi in the spotlight, but fans favourite Fran has said he is happy with his playing time, and has no regrets.

So a new squad number, and more match action next season for Merida shows another excellent piece of business done by the Gunners who plucked the starlet from Barcelona, however he is in a different mould to fellow Spaniard Cesc Fabregas, the future looks very bright for Franny.

Young Guns has followed Fran’s progress during his loan spell with in depth reports on his fixtures with Real Sociedad, as they look to gain promotion to La Liga, as well as all the other loanees, keep up to date with their performances in our Loanees Section.

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On loan Arsenal wing-back Pedro Botelho looks set to rejoin the Gunners in the summer thanks to a special loop-hole in the Home Office’s and Fifa’s ruling.

Arsenal signed Pedro in the summer from Brazilian side Figueirense for a fee of around £1 million, but as part of the agreement between the Gunners and UD Salamanca a deal was reached he would spend this term in Spain following in the footsteps of Carlos Vela, however he could not make his debut until December when he turned 18 due to rule’s on Brazilian players playing in Europe.

That could all change in the summer when or if Arsenal make an application for a work permit which is required for him to be able to play and subsequently earn money in England, with two options, they are as follows.

Now he is 18, we can use Fifa’s “Special Talent” visa option, meaning he is allowed a permit as football’s governing body and the home office agree Pedro would offer the country something, but they are only given out in exceptional circumstances for example when we brought Alexandre Song to England he came over on a special talent visa from Bastia as he had not quite lived and worked long enough in France to enable French status.

The second option of application is a traditional appeal, the English government use Fifa’s rankings when determining work permits for football players, it is worked on via a points system with the players from the top 70 sides getting preference, meaning when Arsenal applied for Carlos Vela’s visa it was rejected as Mexico were outside the 70, a problem we would not face with Pedro as Brazil are high in the standings, and the fact that before he left Figueirense he had already featured for the first team.

With news also that Pedro’s English lessons are progressing well everything looks set for the wing wizard to pull on the red and white next term, offering us another option wide on the left or even at left back, to read more about Pedro and see a video of him in action, see our previous post on him

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[size=7]Arsenal hope to gain Vela permit [/size]

Arsenal have applied for a work permit for their Mexican striker Carlos Vela, who has been on loan with Osasuna.

Vela, 19, signed for Arsenal from Guadalajara in November 2005 but was not eligible to play in this country.

He was farmed out to Celta Viga and Salamanca in Spain before joining Osasuna for the whole of last season.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger told his club's website: "We have applied for a permit for him and he will be involved with the first team next season."

Vela was snapped up by Arsenal after winning the golden boot as top scorer at the 2005 Fifa Under-17 championships.

He signed a five-year deal for a fee that could eventually rise to over £2m and Wenger is keen to bring him into his squad and bolster his attacking options.

"Carlos has played the whole season at Osasuna on the left-wing and he had to work hard there," Wenger added.

"But for me it is not his position. He is a central striker, an Eduardo type."