Arsenal's panic signing after injury spotted in medical as Eberechi Eze learns his own outcome

7 hours ago 5

Arsenal previously faced immediate remorse after signing Kim Kallstrom, who was signed despite the club discovering he had a broken bone in his back.

Thankfully, the Gunners can breath a sigh of relief this weekend as incoming Eberechi Eze is believed to have passed his own medical ahead of his £67.5million transfer from Crystal Palace.

Medicals haven't always been plain sailing for Arsenal, who decided to proceed with the signing of Kallstrom despite the Swede's rather serious fitness issue.

It was early 2014, and Arsene Wenger's title-contending team had already been hit by a series of injuries. Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey were out of action, while Mathieu Flamini was serving a suspension. This led Arsenal to dip into the transfer market just before the January deadline.

With a wealth of experience, 31-year-old Kallstrom of Spartak Moscow seemed like a logical choice for Wenger to bring in at the time. After agreeing to a loan deal until the end of the season, he underwent a medical, which he technically passed.

However, it later came to light that Kallstrom's fitness test should not have been approved due to a back injury he sustained playing beach football during a warm-weather training trip with Spartak in Abu Dhabi. This meant he was out of action for the first six weeks of his Arsenal career, by which point Flamini was back in the squad.

This resulted in the late January deal that Arsenal chose to go through with being regrettable, as he failed to provide a short-term solution for Wenger.

Kallstrom played in only three Premier League matches for Arsenal, with the acquisition ultimately became a significant embarrassment for the club.

Kim Kallstrom playing for Arsenal

The signing of Kim Kallstrom was a major embarrassment for Arsenal

Wenger admitted he contemplated abandoning the transfer upon learning of his back problem, but he maintained it was a matter of necessity. Wenger previously explained: "I'm sure that, if you've played football, you might have played with a micro fracture of a vertebra without knowing you had it. You don't even notice it.

"It crossed my mind [not to complete the deal], but I would not have signed him if we'd had two or three more days to do something. It was 5pm on Friday night, so it was sign him or nobody. Spartak are paying his wages for the first six weeks. We thought it would be four to six weeks.

"There is a possibility for every single player that they will not play but there's also the chance he scores a winning goal that's vitally important. We will only know if we're wrong or right at the end of the season."

No such concerns exist regarding England international Eze – a marquee summer acquisition for the Gunners, who gazumped Tottenham to secure the attacking midfielder. His capture will elevate Arsenal's summer expenditure to £260m.

Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger explained his reasons for going ahead with the Kallstrom transfer

Fabrizio Romano reported on Saturday morning that following Eze's medical on Friday, all paperwork has been completed for the player to become a Gunner. The former Arsenal academy graduate Eze will be thrilled to discover he's poised for the next stage of his career, returning to his childhood club.

When questioned whether he now possesses the most well-rounded squad of his near seven-year reign, head coach Mikel Arteta said: "In terms of numbers and quality, yes for sure. When you shake the tree and bring in more players, there are always things that can happen.

"The spirit of that is to be more competitive, to be better and learn from the past, and with the squad we had last year we made life very, very difficult for ourselves if you look at the size and depth of other squads and the resources they had.

"So, we all have big smiles on our faces with the understanding that we have done really well, but the market is not closed and we have to stay very alert because there are a lot of things that can happen still. But so far, so good."

Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023

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