As one natural left-sided central defender leaves Arsenal, another is being linked with a summer transfer to the Emirates Stadium.
Last Friday the Gunners officially announced Pablo Mari had joined Monza on a permanent basis. It's understood the Spanish defender has earned the club a windfall in the region of £5.9 million as per the agreement in his loan deal which saw him help the Serie A side avoid relegation last season.
The 29-year-old was actually Mikel Arteta's first signing as Arsenal manager/head coach back in the 2020 January transfer window and now the Spaniard is being tipped to raid former club Manchester City for a replacement amid reports in Spain claiming Aymeric Laporte is a target.
Of course, the North London outfit have previously done business with City. In fact, as recently as last summer when they recruited Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to aid their surprising Premier League title challenge but whether the champions would agree to a third deal remains to be seen.
On the surface, Laporte would be the perfect signing especially when taking the Gunners' principles under Arteta. They like to play out from the back, and for balance purposes, it's necessary that a right-footer is on the right-hand side of defence and a left-footer is deployed on the opposite side.
"For me, it's very important," Arteta said of Mari when explaining the importance of recruiting a left-footer in defence due to the increased passing angles it opens up in the build-up phase: "He balances what I want to do from the back line, he gives more options, more solutions, he opens up the pitch more. Again, he's a player that we've been following for the last few months. We are really happy to have him."
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With that in mind, if Laporte was to link up with Jesus and Zinchenko at the Emirates and thus reuniting with Arteta he'd be an option to partner William Saliba at the heart of Arsenal's defence. Although there's no guarantee that he would be regular as Gabriel Magalhaes always starts when fit.
Not only that, even with Mari's permanent departure, the Gunners planned well in advance for this scenario by signing Jakub Kiwior in a £21m deal from Spezia in the January transfer window. The Poland international got his opportunities alongside the Brazilian towards the end of last season but is the natural backup option and is highly rated within the club.
"He's been getting better and better every single day, not only in training but his interaction and his language," Arteta said after the 3-1 win over Chelsea when Kiwior made his full Premier League debut. "He's more settled and he’s a player that I really like, that’s why I signed him. He has the potential at his age to be great and he had a big task against the players he had to face today, and I think he did really well."
In Kiwior, Arsenal already have the ideal Laporte alternative to step in when Gabriel needs a rest and whilst the Spain international could operate at left-back if Kieran Tierney was to leave this summer, once again he may not get the regular game time he's looking for if Zinchenko steers clear of injury and for this reason, the idea of a transfer doesn't appear to make a great deal of sense as thinngs stand.
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