Arsenal are working on a move for Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie, reports David Ornstein. The Ecuadorian international has a €60M release clause in his contract, but Andrea Berta is trying to negotiate that number lower, hopefully helped by Hincapie informing the club of his desire to move. The 23-year-old is primarily a left centerback but can play left back, too.
The signing is contingent on Arsenal selling players to create roster space and generate a bit of cash. Moving for a left-sided
defender points to one or both of Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko heading out. Kiwior has been linked with a loan-to-buy move to Porto for around €20M + potential add-ons. Zinchenko has been linked with moves to Fenerbahce and Borussia Dortmund.
Hincapie was an important part of Leverkusen’s improbable Bundesliga title two seasons ago. He’s a versatile player and seems like an excellent understudy / rotation option for Riccardo Calafiori. Like the Italian, the Ecuadorian loves to get forward, both on the overlap and driving inside, and is confident on the ball. Hincapie is more mobile than Calafiori, but also probably even more aggressive as a result. Given Calafiori’s injury history and his importance to the Arsenal attack (creating chaos and unbalancing the opposing defense), it seems like a good move to find another player who can do many of the same things.
That player isn’t really Myles Lewis-Skelly. Don’t get me wrong, he’s great and has done a fantastic job playing out-of-position at left back. But he doesn’t contribute to the attack in the same way that Calafiori does. MLS was trained as a central midfiedler and is more of a controlling, ball retention, and build-up player than an agent of chaos. His best ball-carries are more from the defensive third into and through the middle third whereas Calafiori carries from the edge of the middle third into the attacking third and around the box.
Adding another left-sided defender, in addition to covering for likely outgoings, would allow MLS to play more centrally where he might be (probably is?) even better than he is at left back. It’s giving Bukayo Saka vibes. If you remember, Saka broke into the side at fullback out of necessity and was quite good there before moving into his more attacking role where he’s even better. Buying Hincapie would allow for the same type of progression.
It would also add a young, talented, left-side defender to the roster, which we know is one of Mikel Arteta’s favorite things. He loves a left back. In all seriousness though, if you look back at the Arsenal roster evaluations and summer transfer needs from when the window opened, LCB/LB was correctly on the list!
This seems like a win-win-win-(win-win-and so on) move. The Gunners have already spent nearly €300M this summer, what’s another €50M?
