Fabrizio Romano: 🔴⚪️🇵🇱 Jakub Kiwior could leave Arsenal in case of good proposal, with Riccardo Calafiori close to joining. Understand there’s possibility for loan but only with a mandatory buy clause. Italian clubs are keeping close eye to the situation, no formal proposals yet.
by ZCast9
21 Comments
Was always going to happen. I think as long as it’s mandatory like Fab says and is a small profit or recouping our cost then it’s absolutely fine.
The club think Calafiori in & Kiwior out is an upgrade, and personally I felt he wasn’t quite at the level we’re after long term at both LCB & LB (though was a relatively decent gamble for us)
Worth noting that AC Milan and Juventus were the two clubs showing interest in him.
Every time
Kiwi is a more than decent player who didn’t quite get to show all his attributes because the quality in front of him is just a bit higher. We must think calafiori is better still and can break that barrier.
Considering that Milan are in talks to buy Emerson from spuds for 15-20m, I’d be incredibly disappointed if we get a lower fee for Kiwi.
Kiwior is a good CB but not great at LB. Shame we never really got to see him at CB, but if we can turn a profit and upgrade on him in Calafiori then I’m all in for it
Would much prefer selling Zinchenko. At least Kiwior can actually defend.
I think this is expected after Calafiori transfer. He came in and did great last season over a stretch when we were scoring for fun and keeping clean sheets. Kiwior is good defender but has some limitations to how Arteta plays so it’s only right we’re selling when his stakes are high. We need to get better at selling players and I think Edu/Arteta are doing just that now.
Imma miss you my Polish king and wish you nothing but success.
7 first team defenders is fine.
And since it looks like no one is interested in Zinchenko it makes sense to sell Kiwior.
Nah we need 8 defenders. White(Timber/Tomi) Saliba(Tomi/Kiwior) Gabriel(Tomi/Kiwior) Calafiori(Zinny/Timber). It’s worth to note that most of our players are very versatile and can play multiple positions but we can’t have Saliba and Gabriel play all the matches in the season. Last season we got lucky as both of our main CBs were injury free but it’s not smart to just hope for that and go to next season. Zinny and Tomi are injury prone and Timber just came back from a major ACL injury and we have to manage his minutes so that he can play the whole season injury free. Saliba and France in my opinion are going to finals and will hardly have enough time to rest with pre-season matches. We need to give his time to rest and only start him once the PL starts. Rotation is very important coming into next season with increased number of matches and if we are planning to go deep into cup competitions and win it.
After Calafiori, I reckon the next target should be a CM either a 8 or 6 and if possible Saka’s backup.
I don’t get it, he’s 1.5yrs into his 5.5yr contract with us and has played well when called upon. I understand we may soon be signing Calafiori but surely Zinchenko who is older, less versatile, is far more defensively frail, and on almost 3x Kiwior’s wages is first of the two to be moved?
I can only make sense of this if there’s pressure from the players side for a move wherein he has a better chance of first team football. He worked with Thiago Motta at Spezia Calcio, who is now at Juventus (one of the teams Kiwior is linked with). They wanted Calafiori but Bologna refuses to sell Calafiori to them so it may be the natural move for all parties involved.
Still, we paid €20m and boosted his profile, and I’ve heard the offers were around €15m for Kiwior which is a joke. It would legitimately cost us more to replace him and I’d rather keep him for a few more seasons until we’ve gotten a bit more value for our money. Hate doing business with Italian teams, price is always 2-3x when we’re buying, but car boot sale prices when it’s the other way around.
If you look at the minutes given towards the end of the season, it’s clear that Arteta doesn’t fully trust Kiwior.
After the Bayern game/mistake, his only subsequent start was at wolves and he was basically relegated to the bench.
I think we got him for around €20m. Flipping him for €30-35m and picking up Calafiori for around €50m would be decent business.
I like Kiwi though and felt like he could’ve had a long term future with us. It feels pretty unfortunate that during his time here he didn’t get much of an opportunity to play his preferred position (kudos to Gabi XL).
In an ideal world I’d sell Zinny first and keep Kiwi as a versatile option for the future. Having Calafiori, Timber, White, Kiwi, Tomi as versatile options sounds overkill now that I’m typing it out but then there’s Zinny who’s a specialist and can only play one role in specific games.
Rather it was Zinchenko.
Thought kiwior did well last season but if we sign calafiori he’s game time will be limited.
Never really saw much in Kiwior, to be honest. Always looked like the weak link in our back line. Hes a tidy player and he’ll have a long career at a good level, but from what I’m hearing about Calafiori, it looks like we’re genuinely going to be levelling up at LB.
I’m in Gaucho for a birthday lunch and I just fell to my knees at the prospect of upgrading Kiwior with Calafiori
“In case of a good proposal”.
We have around 6 players like that. Thomas and ESR have had that hanging around their heads for at least 2 years.
Feels like the Ramsdale Raya situation. A player the coaches liked is available so we go for him even though their likely counterpart in the team have been decent. Teams will take advantage of that. Ruthlessness comes at a cost figuratively and literally
A shame if he ends up leaving. I know LB was not his ideal position but I believe he is good as a backup and provides a set piece threat for us.
Ruthless FC