Arsenal are showing an interest in Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae, with Maurizio Micheli seemingly driving the Gunners’ pursuit of the player.
Christian Falk reports to CFBayern Insider that Arsenal have Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae on their shortlist for the January transfer window, claiming the Gunners are looking for a potential defensive signing in the winter window.
It seems the Bayern centre-back isn’t completely off the table, with Falk suggesting he could be sold for the right offer.
As for what’s driving Arsenal’s interest, Falk claims it’s partly the recent injury to Piero Hincapie. But it’s also the case that Gunners scouting chief Maurizio Micheli has long been a fan of the Korean, having previously brought him to Napoli during his time with the Serie A club in 2022.
Arsenal themselves have been long linked with Kim, with reports suggesting they’d made enquiries for the defender all the way back in 2020, when he was playing for Beijing Guoan. Nothing came of those enquiries at the time.
But there are some reasons to be sceptical of the current rumours. For a start, Arsenal travel away to play against Bayern just next week.
Though Falk claims the timing of the link is coincidental, it’s not uncommon for a player at an opposition club to be linked with a team in the week of their game, only for those rumours to completely disappear afterwards.
It would also be fair to be dubious about the idea of Arsenal pursuing Kim to cover for Hincapie. The right-footed centre-back doesn’t really fill the current Hincapie-shaped hole in the squad, especially since he’s only played 14 minutes of football at left-back in his career.
It happens that those 14 minutes were against Arsenal, in the 2024 Champions League quarter-final second leg. But it’s still not much of a basis to make a signing. This rumour is just one to keep an eye on for the time being.
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