Arsenal in ‘silent’ transfer mission as Edu tries desperately to avoid Mudryk repeat – ‘a strange deal’

Lewis Oldham
Arsenal sign Kiwior

Arsenal reportedly acted in “silence” to sign Jakub Kiwior from Spezia and this was done in response to Mykhaylo Mudryk joining rivals Chelsea.

The Gunners have been busy in the transfer market this month. One of their priorities heading into the transfer window was to sign Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk.

It initially looked likely that they would sign him but this was a transfer saga that played out publicly and Chelsea eventually swooped to sign him for an initial fee of around £62m.

This has not deterred Arsenal too much, though. Since this disappointment, they have splashed out to sign Leandro Trossard and Kiwior.

Both of these deals were put together very quickly, with Kiwior signing for the club a couple of days after their interest was first revealed.

Gianluca Di Marzio is now reporting that Arsenal wanted to ensure Spezia and the player’s agents “couldn’t speak about the deal” for Kiwior.

“It was a strange deal because after the Mudryk deal collapsed, Arsenal wanted to put in the contracts with the agents and clubs, all the parties involved in the deal, they couldn’t speak about the deal otherwise it wouldn’t go forward,” Di Marzio told goal.pl.

“After Mudryk, where everybody was talking about him, then Chelsea arrived and got the player, now Arsenal have decided probably in every deal, this ‘silent’ part of the contract.

“Nobody knew about Kiwior to Arsenal till the end of this deal. And I understand Arsenal because every player they want to get, Chelsea arrives and offers more.

“I think it is difficult now even for English clubs with the ghost of Chelsea doing a deal with other clubs without anyone knowing.”

He added: “In the beginning, he (Kiwior) was a target of AC Milan but they wanted to do it in the summer.”

“Napoli too and they also wanted to do in the summer. Villarreal tried, Borussia Dortmund tried.

“Arsenal was very quick and speedy because they anticipated that other clubs could arrive in June.”

Di Marzio also states that Arsenal “did a very good deal for Kiwior” and they “arrived first” to avoid competition from rivals.

“Arsenal started by offering €18 million plus bonuses. Then Eduardo Macia, the sporting director of Spezia and Edu have a good relationship and they started talking,” Di Marzio added.

“Macia was good to get the price to €25 million plus €5 million in bonuses.

“The player wanted to stay at Spezia till the end of the season but when Arsenal came he said I only want to go to Arsenal at this moment.

“Arsenal did a very good deal for Kiwior and the key was to move in January.

“Arsenal were very good in this deal and even from Spezia nobody talked because they were afraid the deal couldn’t go forward.

“He is a very good player and I think Arsenal arrived first and the key was to anticipate the move in January because, in June, Kiwior could have gone anywhere.”

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