With Arsenal’s current centre-back options proving particularly injury-prone at the moment, we may well see the club dip into the market for replacements in January.
Laurent Koscielny, Arsenal’s best defender for a number of seasons, is still yet to play a match for the first team this campaign, and we have no idea how he’ll perform when he does return. Konstantinos Mavropanos is in a similar boat, with injuries denying him any competitive minutes so far.
Meanwhile, Sokratis Papastathopoulos only played his first league game in two months over the weekend.
If Arsenal indeed decide they need defensive reinforcements in January, let’s have a look at who they’ve been linked with for the winter window:
3Mario Hermoso
- Age: 23
- Position: Centre-back
- Contract until: 2020
- Club: Real Betis
- Estimated transfer value: £18m
Recent reports from Spain suggest Arsenal are considering paying the €40m release clause for Espanyol defender Mario Hermoso in January.
Hermoso joined Espanyol from Real Madrid in 2017, having never appeared for Madrid’s first team after coming through their academy. Since then, the 23-year-old has really made a name for himself in La Liga.
Suddenly, there are rumours that Real Madrid want to activate their buy-back clause of €7.5m. However, Arsenal are also very interested, according to a report from Marca.
Hermoso has played every minute of Espanyol’s league campaign so far, scoring a couple of goals and helping them keep five clean sheets in their run up to fifth in the table (above Real Madrid).
It’s no surprise the big clubs are starting to take an interest, and that interest will only increase after the Spaniard made his international debut earlier this month.
Click ‘Next’ for more centre-backs linked with a January move to Arsenal