Serie A giants Napoli and Antonio Conte are now planning a January bid for an “extraordinary” Arsenal player, who could well be tempted by a mid-season move.
Players linked with January exits from Arsenal
It has been a difficult start to the season for Mikel Arteta, who was tipped to guide the Gunners to their first Premier League title in 21 years.
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Last week, Arsenal lost influential sporting director Edu Gaspar, who will no longer play a pivotal role in growing Arsenal as a club after announcing his departure. This comes amid their troubles on the field, with Arsenal failing to win a single league game since their 3-1 victory over Southampton in early October.
Arsenal’s next five Premier League games | Date |
|---|---|
Nottingham Forest (home) | November 23 |
West Ham United (away) | November 30 |
Man United (home) | December 4 |
Fulham (away) | December 8 |
Everton (home) | December 14 |
The north Londoners are now nine points behind league leaders Liverpool as their chase for a first domestic crown in decades looks to be unravelling already, but despite this, there are still reports that Arteta could look to offload personnel in the winter.
Left-back Kieran Tierney is widely expected to depart Arsenal after falling out of favour under Arteta, with the Scotsman not playing for them since the club’s Community Shield win over Man City in 2023.
Meanwhile, it is also believed that Arsenal have been contemplating the sale of Takehiro Tomiyasu in January. The £100,000-per-week Japan international has suffered from serious injury problems since pre-season, with Tomiyasu playing just six minutes all campaign due to a recurring knee issue.
“We don’t know that [how long he will be out for],” said Arteta on Tomiyasu last month.
“It doesn’t look like, hopefully, a long period, but we have to see when he comes back how he reacts to the load and to the impact on the pitch as well.
“But we really need him, he has been incredible, his work rate, the amount of hours he has put in to get back. He did it and he was in great shape – and now he has got something else again. But, we are all behind him. He needs our support, and hopefully he will be fine.”
As well as Tomiyasu and Tierney, there are suggestions that defender Jakub Kiwior is expected to depart N5 next year.
Napoli planning January bid to sign Jakub Kiwior from Arsenal
According to Italian news outlet TUTTOmercatoWEB, Napoli are thinking about making a loan bid for Kiwior in January as Conte’s side scour the market for new central defensive reinforcements.
They’re also admirers of Radu Dragusin from Tottenham, but Arsenal’s fringe defender could be far more attainable in their eyes due to the Poland international being further down Arteta’s pecking order.
The loan bid could include an option to buy or an obligation based on certain conditions, which would hand Kiwior the opportunity to make a permanent Serie A return in the summer, who has received high praise from international teammate Robert Lewandowski in the past.
“He has great potential,” said Lewandowski in 2022 when asked about Kiwior.
“During the warm-up of the game with the Netherlands, I thought: ‘Who is this guy?’ Then, during the match, I saw that he is extraordinary.”
