'I would take': Arsenal exit talked up as agent urges table-topping club to sign £20m man in January
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The transfer speculation surrounding Arsenal’s £20 Premier League benchwarmer continues to ramp up week by week.
And, with the January transfer window now just a month and a half away, the lack of opportunities afforded to him by Mikel Arteta will serve only to amplify the uncertainty.
Jakub Kiwior has not started a single Arsenal game all season in England’s top-flight.
The Poland international made headlines for all the wrong reasons in that 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth in October, stepping onto the pitch after William Saliba’s red card and helping to gift Andoni Iraola’s side their crucial second goal.
Kiwior’s most recent top-flight outing, meanwhile, came about due to an injury Gabriel Magalhaes picked up during the enthralling 2-2 draw with league leaders Liverpool.
TBR understands that Kiwior has now told Arsenal that a transfer appeals to him. Juventus, under the stewardship of his former Spezia boss Thiago Motta, are keen.
Reigning Italian champions Inter Milan are also in the mix, alongside a Bologna outfit who lost their first-choice left-sided centre-back Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal over the summer.
But while a potential switch to Napoli remains purely hypothetical for the time being, one Italian agent with strong connections at the 2023 Scudetto winners believes that Antonio Conte should be returning to North London during the January window.
“Napoli’s winter market? If I had to decide in January, I would take Kiwior,” Mario Giuffredi tells Radio Kiss Kiss.
Giuffredi, who represents Napoli trio Matteo Politano, Giovanni di Lorenzo and Michael Folorunsho and formerly worked with left-back Mario Rui, is not the only one who feels Kiwior should swap the Emirates for the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Stefano Chisoli, his former president at Spezia, believes that, with Conte shifting from his trademark back three to a back four, Kiwior’s versatility and left-footedness would benefit Napoli greatly.
Napoli went into the November international break top of the standings. The Partenopei also have the second best defensive record in the division, despite a recent 3-0 hammering by Atalanta.
“I expected an exciting and warlike Napoli, not a Napoli in first place,” Giuffredi adds, Conte immediately sparking a title charge only months after a dismal 10th place finish.
“There has been a radical change from a technical point of view and that’s normal. [But] when you start a new project, you can’t expect these results already.
“Di Lorenzo? If the results are these, then staying in Naples was the best choice.”
Arsenal, meanwhile, are already on the pursuit of potential replacements should Kiwior depart. Nantes’ Nathan Zeze and Valencia’s Christian Mosquera have admirers at the Emirates.
Arsenal also like Palmeiras youngster Vitor Reis, with the Brazilian’s representative admitting that a departure from South America is ‘inevitable’ in the near future.
Reis is expected to cost around £30 million. The Gunners will be hoping to make a similar fee for Kiwior, with four years still left on the contract he signed back in January 2023.