Arsenal reject Serie A interest in ‘untransferable’ defender with Arteta ‘not open to negotiation’
Serie A giants AC Milan and AS Roma are both interested in signing Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior, according to reports in Italy.
Kiwior joined the Premier League side from Spezia in January for a fee in the region of £20million.
With Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba starring in the centre of Mikel Arteta’s defence, minutes have been very hard to come by for the 23-year-old.
The 17-cap Polish international has made 16 appearances for Arsenal, starting four times this season.
He is a player who is highly rated at the Emirates and the fans believe there will be a time for him to shine under Arteta, but while he is nothing more than a benchwarmer and cup player, there are going to be transfer rumours.
According to Italian outlet Calciomercato, Milan are in the market for a new centre-back and want to bring Kiwior to San Siro.
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Jose Mourinho’s Roma are also keen on the 23-year-old and offered to take him on loan, only for Arsenal to tell them where to go.
Arteta is eager to ‘capitalise’ on Kiwior’s ‘operation’ after a positive start to life in north London and regards the player as ‘untransferrable’, both despite his lack of opportunities.
‘At the moment’, the Gunners ‘are not open to any negotiation’, so Milan and Roma will have to look elsewhere.
Tuttomercatoweb has also reported the Serie A interest in the former Spezia defender.
They claim that Arsenal ‘have no intention of selling Kiwior’ and are also ‘not open’ to letting him leave on loan.
Milan do not intend to buy Kiwior, it is claimed, but have contacted his agent over a deal to sign him on loan until the end of the season.
The same applies to Roma, who would only want to sign the Polish defender as a ‘stop-gap’, which makes no sense for Arteta, who would then need to sign a new defender himself.
The Gunners are fairly short at the back this season following the ACL injury to Jurrien Timber and the departures of Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding.
Thankfully for Arteta, Takehiro Tomiyasu has been fit and firing this term after battling several injuries last term, though the same cannot be said for Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has struggled to stay fit in 2023/24.
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