Mikel Arteta could sign “top class player” for Arsenal midfield in swap deal
By Evan Curnew
Arsenal have already rebuilt their midfield this summer by letting Granit Xhaka leave for Bayer Leverkusen and signing Declan Rice from West Ham United. Mikel Arteta likely feels he has his best squad readily available, but one midfielder could still leave. Defensive midfielder Thomas Partey has been long linked to Saudi Arabia this summer and could still depart. Reports out of Italy suggest Arsenal have identified their preferred replacement for Partey should he leave.
CalcioMercatoWeb reports that Arsenal will push to sign Inter’s Nicolo Barella should Thomas Partey leave this summer. The report also suggests that Arsenal are willing to sell both Folarin Balogun and Takehiro Tomiyasu to Inter in order to help bring Barella to the Emirates. What might put a roadblock in that potential move is Inter manager Simone Inzaghi would rather sign Atletico Madrid’s Alvaro Morata instead of Balogun. It is believed that Inter’s sporting director Beppe Marotta would like to sign Folarin Balogun.
It feels as though this deal has a lot of moving parts that would need to happen, which makes it an unlikely one at that. Barella recorded 13 goal contributions last season in the Inter midfield and has stapled himself as a star in Serie A. Barella is native to the Italian island of Cagliari and played for the club with the same name. After five seasons with Cagliari, Barella moved to Inter in 2020, and it landed him a spot in Azzurri’s Euros 2020 squad, where the midfielder really broke out. He has since gone on to establish himself as an elite midfielder in the footballing world, being praised by Jurgen Klopp as a “top-class player” last season during a UCL press conference.
There could be interest in the midfielder, but as of now, a midfield trio of Odegaard, Rice and Barella feels like a pipe dream for Arsenal.