Arsenal are vying for Manchester City defender Joao Cancelo this summer and the Portuguese international is on their priority target list. The full-back has ended his short loan tenure at Bayern Munich and the Bavarians are not gripped on making his deal permanent thus giving Arsenal and Arteta a chance to snoop in.
The Gunners will be playing their first Champions League game since 2017. Having qualified for the European competition, Arteta would want to strengthen his back line that was brutally exposed in the latter stages of last season.
Arsenal have found a long-term candidate in William Saliba whose injury in the game against Sporting CP has been dubbed as the sole reason for Arsenal’s annihilation. The problems only compounded for Arsenal when Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered a season-long injury in the same fixture. Gunners had a good depth of players to replace them both but lacked required quality.
Rob Holding was brought in the game against Manchester City where the latter thrashed the former 4-1 potentially begot the title race to shift towards Manchester. Jakub Kiwor did replace Holding in the following matches and he was competent but not as exceptional as the benchmark set by Saliba.
Mikel Arteta has the talent of Kieran Tierney at his disposal but doesn’t seem interested in giving him game time. In the last two games of the current season, the Scottish international was left out of the bench even after Zinchenko and Tomiyasu being injured. Thus indicating his lack of trust in the youngster who may soon move away from London.
The Gunners will look into signing Cancelo also because of Arteta’s view of moving either Ben White or Tomiyasu in the centre position like he did in the last two games of the season. Having said that, a full-back position is up and waiting in City’s former assistant manager’s club.
Joao Cancelo is not going to come in cheap and why would he. Arguably the best full-back in Europe presently, Man City are vying somewhere around £70 million for the 29-year-old. His signing will also depend on £120 million Declan Rice for whom Arsenal are slogging day and night.
If Arsenal are to get Cancelo, they will have a dream defence in Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, and Cancelo.
Ahh! Scary for the opposition, ain’t it!
