Arsenal have reached an agreement to sell Jakub Kiwior to Porto, reports David Ornstein, but the move is contingent on the Gunners finalizing the purchase of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen. The Portuguese side had been exploring a loan with an obligation to buy the Polish defender, but it looks as if it will be a straight sale — €25M with a potential €2M more. The club have already agreed to personal terms with the defender.
Kiwior made 68 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal, including
30 last season. He took over as the starting LCB after Gabriel went down with his hamstring injury and deputized quite well. Kiwior got a bit of an unfair rub from the supporters — one of his earliest appearances for the club was a shaky one against Liverpool and people over-indexed that performance. He was more than a serviceable backup CB and put in a couple strong performances at LB, too. His long passing remains underrated. He hits a really good diagonal.
The move makes the most sense for Kiwior. He’s a regular for the Polish national team and needs to be getting significant minutes in a World Cup year. He’ll join countryman and fellow CB Jan Bednarek at Porto, which I’m sure the national team setup is thrilled about.
It’s a…fine move for Arsenal, too. There’s only so much analysis to be done for backups — swapping them in and out doesn’t move the needle nearly as much as selling / signing a nailed-on starter.
The club has Kiwior’s replacement identified in Piero Hincapie, who seems to fit the current LB / LCB backup role better than he does. Hincapie has a similar swashbuckling, attacking flair to his game as Riccardo Calafiori does, which will making rotating one for the other a smoother transition. Both the Italian and Ecuadorian are cover for Gabriel at LCB, so Arsenal are not left short in that spot. They also know that Myles Lewis-Skelly can play left back, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see MLS start getting minutes in his natural central midfield role.
Best of luck, Jakub! You won’t be the last Arsenal sale before this transfer window closes on September 1st!
