On Friday, all hell broke loose in the Arsenal transfer rumour mill when it was reported that the Gunners had had a bid accepted by Spezia for the transfer of Jakub Kiwior.
The young centre-back had been a target for many clubs, and it appears that the Serie A side refused five offers from five different sides, including Brentford FC and Leicester City, before accepting the one from Edu Gaspar and co.
This comes courtesy of TuttoMercatoWeb, who reveal the information on Monday, following the news the player will be joining Arsenal for a package worth €30m.
They state Borussia Dortmund came forward with an official bid of €22m for the 22-year-old, but that wasn’t enough to tempt Spezia.
As well as the Bundesliga giants, they state that four other clubs came forward ‘in the last few weeks’, and name Brentford, Leicester, Atlético Madrid and Leipzig.
They all ‘formulated offers’ for the Poland International, but they were ‘all rejected’, until Arsenal came along, prepared to pay more than anyone else with their €25m + €5m offer.
It certainly makes sense that Leicester would be interested, seeing as they have little depth in the position, since Caglar Soyuncu appears on his way out and Jonny Evans is injured, leaving just summer signing Wout Faes, Daniel Amartey and Jannik Vestergaard for Brendan Rodgers to choose from.
As for Brentford, they might have six centre-backs for three starting roles, but it’s worth keeping in mind that both Pontus Jansson (31) and Zanka (32) could leave on free transfers in the summer if the options for a further year in their contracts aren’t triggered.
Therefore, it makes sense for Thomas Frank to try and plan for the future ahead of time by bringing in a talented young defender like the Pole.
Still, whatever they offered wasn’t enough, and Kiwior is now headed to Arsenal.
