Real Madrid Goalkeeper set to join the club in January

During the first week in January, Real Madrid expect to complete the signing of Kepa Arrizabalaga with an offer of 25 million euros being made as soon as the transfer window opens.

The Spanish goalkeeper's contract dispute with Athletic Club has been a longstanding issue, he has been in negotiations for over 12 months and an agreement hasn't been reached.

With Los Blancos looking to plan for life after Keylor Navas, completing the signing of a hugely promising 23-year-old stopper with LaLiga experience seems like a no-brainer.

Kepa's current contract with the Basque club ends in June 2018, however with Spanish clubs unable to talk to domestic based players about Bosman transfers, the defending champions could be forced to pay his buy-out clause to avoid foreign interest turning his head.

Furthermore it's worth remembering that had the goalkeeper not signed a new contract, it was expected that Kepa would be placed in exile and his chances of going to the World Cup would have evaporated, although he isn't expecting to feature unless David de Gea suffers an injury anyway.

MARCA understands that from January 1, Kepa will be committed to the European champions for the next six seasons on a contract that will pay him 2.5m euros as an annual salary.

Florentino Perez has embarked on a policy of securing the futures of numerous talented Spanish youngsters and it should come as no surprise that this is a comparable salary with that of Dani Ceballos and Theo Hernandez.

Recently there was a change in tact from Athletic Club president, Josu Urrutia, in that he intimated that the club would be willing to meet all of the Spaniard's demands.

Now this extends to the salary he will earn in the capital, although many believe this to be a measure taken to justify the eventual sale to the club's partisan fanbase once it became clear a departure was unavoidable.

With the club set to participate in the Club World Cup hosted in the United Arab Emirates, Real Madrid will send their offer for the keeper once the club has finished their participation in the tournament.

There is no relationship between the two presidents, they simply don't get on, and this transfer is hardly going to help matters on that front.

Perez always looks to try and find an agreement with a club instead of paying a buy-out clause, which is why the club will make an offer which exceeds the value of the 20m eur clause as a sign of goodwill.

Many feel this is a pointless concession, however it's something that Los Blancos did in the summer by paying 29m euros to Atletico Madrid from Theo Hernandez and 16.5m euros for Ceballos from Real Betis.

Both of these fees were slightly higher than the buy-out clauses embedded in the players' respective contracts at that time.

Should Urrutia simply refuse to negotiate with someone he considers a sporting enemy, then the defending LaLiga champions will pay the buy-out clause amount and thus complete the signing with haste.

Luis Llopis, the club's goalkeeping coach, has been a huge advocate of the Spaniard and has pushed those in power within Valdebebas to make the move.

Kepa won't be cup-tied for the Champions League after having only played in the Europa League previously this term; the latter stages of the Copa del Rey are seen as the ideal opportunity to help integrate the likely new signing into the Real Madrid senior team.