Grzegorz Krychowiak: Arsenal transfer target to be given new long-term deal at Sevilla

Sevilla president Pepe Castro has said the club are to renew the contract of Grzegorz Krychowiak following a summer that saw him repeatedly linked with Arsenal. The Poland international moved to the Europa League champions from Stade de Reims for just £2.9m ($4.5m) in the summer of 2014, but thanks to his sensational form last season he has been linked with a heap of clubs from Europe's elite.

The Times reported during the summer transfer window that Arsene Wenger had identified the 25-year-old holding midfielder as a challenger for Francis Coquelin's position. Wenger denied this, but the presence of scouts from the North London side during Sevilla's Super Cup defeat to Barcelona reignited rumours about Arsenal's willingness to meet his €30m release clause.

The player himself squashed speculation on his Twitter account before deadline day, and when asked about Arsenal's interest by Estadio Deportivo earlier in September he simply replied: "That does not matter now.

"What matters to me is that I am staying at Sevilla. It was important for me to keep progressing here. Playing at Sevilla this season is very important to me, it is where I wanted to be. I would say that every story about transfers has a grain of truth. But I try not to think about that. I went on holidays thinking only of playing for Sevilla the following season. A player must focus only on playing and there other people who are in charge of dealing with other stuff."

The Sevilla president have now confirmed that the club are looking to tie him to a long-term deal. "We are holding talks but there is nothing [final] yet," Castro said to Marca.

The Spanish publication suggests that a new deal will come with a higher release clause, to ward off any other teams who may want to swoop for his services.