3 days ago
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Arsenal have confirmed the signing of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen on a season-long loan with an option to buy in the region of £45million. football.londonunderstands that all parties expect the deal to be made permanent next summer.
The Ecuador international is expected to sign a five-year contract from the following season and become Andrea Berta's eighth summer acquisition. The move would take the Gunners’ potential investment beyond £300million for all the players brought in.
He is a player whom the club and Andrea Berta separately have followed for some time. Hincapie was of keen interest during Edu Gaspar’s tenure as sporting director to his recruitment team and to the Italian while he was with Atletico Madrid.
While replacing the outgoing Jakub Kiwior, who joins Porto, the move is viewed very much as an upgrade on the left side of defence. Mikel Arteta understands that Hincapie can become an integral part of the defence and not simply be depth but compete for the roles at left centre-half and left-back.
Hincapie, therefore, continues the trend of defenders who can play in multiple roles. Having lost Takehiro Tomiyasu and now Kiwior, adding Cristhian Mosquera and Hincapie is hoped to both cover these losses and improve the quality in the group.
Riccardo Calafiori's fitness concerns, in addition to Gabriel Magalhaes' recent hamstring surgery, made it abundantly clear that if Kiwior were to leave, they would need to replace him. Myles Lewis-Skelly is yet to start a game this season but there is the potential he could be used in a midfield role in the future too.
Hincapie could now make his debut against Nottingham Forest. However, fans will have to wait more than a week for the game with the international break set to take place with Ecuador due to play Paraguay on September 5th and Argentina on September 10th.
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