Arsenal gifted an opportunity to sign defender they failed to sign in January

Whether or not Arsenal choose to sign a defender in the summer remains to be seen. Of course, reports yesterday linked Mikel Arteta’s men with a move for Joao Cancelo, however, the interest is still yet to be confirmed.

Bear in mind, the North London league-leaders did sign Jakub Kiwior in January, who is picking up minutes on a more regular basis now (even given his Premier League debut at the weekend as he came on towards the end of the match). Arteta is a fan of him and does see his as a viable option in the future.

A new report from Gazzetta dello Sport, while not directly mentioning Arsenal, may be of interest to them. The Italian outlet claimed that Juventus are no longer interested in signing Ivan Fresneda from Real Valladolid. Since Juve were Arsenal’s primary competitor for the right-back, they’ve been given the opportunity to sign him now.

It got to a point in January where Valladolid accepted fate and started to plan for life after Fresneda. However, the deal never materialised. This does mean, though, that they’re likely to part ways with the youngster in the summer and should the Gunners still be interested, I’m sure they’ll be part of the conversation.

It won’t be smooth-sailing, though. The complication that Arsenal face is how much money Valladolid are likely to request. We know that Arsenal are particularly prudent about how they allocate their resources, so they won’t be persuaded into overspending.

Besides, at right-back, the Gunners do boast Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu. Therefore, they’re not exactly short of options – albeit the former is out injured until the end of this season. No matter what happens, fan can take pleasure in the fact that this opportunity has presented itself, just in case.

Do you think Arsenal will rekindle their interest in Ivan Fresneda?