Arsenal have identified former Manchester City defender Eric Garcia as a key summer transfer target - just months after he rebuffed an approach from the Londoners in the New Year.
The Gunners are currently in pole position to end their agonising 19-year title drought but are already sketching out plans for the summer in a bid to sustain their recent progress next season.
And while it remains to be seen whether or not Mikel Arteta can pip his old mentor Pep Guardiola to the Premier League crown, the Spaniard's plans to pinch Garcia from Barcelona would certainly rub salt in the Manchester City chief's wounds.
According to Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, Arsenal and Arteta are 'insistent' on acquiring the highly-rated centre-back; although it's also claimed that Garcia 'refused' to link up with the Gunners when they previously showed an interest in his services back in January.
The 22-year-old has been restricted to just 14 LaLiga appearances this term for Xavi Hernandez' side, though, which is likely to mean he is more receptive to a move at the end of the current campaign.
Landing Garcia would be a major coup for Arteta and Arsenal - and a bitter pill for Guardiola and Manchester City to swallow.
Guardiola made it clear on more than one occasion that he was a huge fan of Garcia, who looked the part after being integrated into the first-team fold at the Etihad. But once it became clear that the defender was planning to join Barcelona as a free agent after rebuffing contract talks, the decision was made to freeze Garcia out.
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That didn't dampen Guardiola's admiration for the player, though - who he even claimed was "like a son" to him. Speaking to Marca back in March 2021, Guardiola said: “I think Eric García is going to play for Barcelona and they do not buy normal players, they want him because he is a top player.
“You can’t imagine what Eric means to me. He is like a son. Last season after confinement he was our best central defender. He didn’t make any mistakes, not a single one.”
Arteta, who spent over three years at Manchester City working alongside Guardiola before taking the top job at Arsenal, has not been shy about pinching talent from the Etihad.
And the Arsenal boss admitted earlier this week that he's also adopted the principle of inverted full-backs after watching Guardiola use it to great effect. He explained: “It started when I was in Barcelona, we used to play a 3-4-3 diamond and one of the full-backs used to play there. But Pep did it at Bayern for the first time with Phillip Lahm and then that was developed at City with many different ways of doing it with different players.
"So that is the great thing, that you can take all the time things from other sports, other coaches to make yourself better and that curiosity is necessary to evolve and be better."
