Asamoah Gyan on brink of leaving Sunderland for Turkey

Meanwhile, Arsenal's dithering cost Wenger the chance to sign Juan Mata and Santi Carzola.

Sunderland will make a significant loss on Asamoah Gyan, left, when he leaves the club for Galatasaray.

Duncan Castles

Galatasaray hope to conclude the signing of Asamoah Gyan, the Sunderland centre forward, before Turkey's extended transfer window closes tomorrow. The Turkish club have offered Sunderland £5.25 million (Dh31.4m) plus £1.75m of variable payments for the 25-year-old Ghana international.

Gyan is Sunderland's record signing following a £13.1m switch from Rennes last summer, but has become an increasingly difficult figure around the club since discovering that several teammates are paid more than his £25,000 weekly wage.

Though Sunderland are asking for bank guarantees from the Turkish club before completing the deal, they attempted to loan Gyan to both Mallorca and Marseille last week.

"Sunderland proposed that we could have Asamoah Gyan, but we decided not to follow through with it," said Marseille sporting director Jose Anigo. "This was simply because Jean-Pierre Gignac did not want to go to Sunderland [in exchange]."

Gyan suffered a thigh injury on a scoring return to international duty in a 2-0 African Cup of Nations qualifier win over Swaziland on Friday night, the damage is not thought to be significant. Other Turkish clubs with an interest in Gyan include Champions League qualifiers Trabzonspor.

Meanwhile, Arsenal's hesitancy in the summer transfer window cost the club the signatures of not one, but two Spain internationals. It has been widely reported that a failure to exercise Juan Mata's buyout clause by the middle of August ultimately saw them lose the forward to Chelsea.

Arsene Wenger also lost Santi Cazorla to Malaga after hesitating on a formal offer.

Like Mata, Cazorla, 26, had agreed personal terms with Arsenal. The Premier League club, however, did not want to conclude what would have been a £16.6m transfer from Villarreal before the sales of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri had been completed, allowing Malaga to beat them to the deal.

Instead, Wenger ended up scrambling to recruit Mikel Arteta from Everton for £10m and Yossi Benayoun on loan from Chelsea on deadline day.