Arsenal have enjoyed an unprecedented transfer window under Andrea Berta this summer.
The Gunners have signed seven players and spent around £250 million, with the likes of Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Martin Zubimendi and Viktor Gyokeres all arriving for in excess of £50 million.
Eze became the latest Arsenal addition on Saturday, joining from Crystal Palace for £67.5 million.
Despite this outlandish spending, the North Londoners still want to acquire one more player before the window shuts, and are pushing hard to complete the deal.
Arsenal fans react as Andrea Berta eyes Piero Hincapie
Jakub Kiwior is attracting interest from Porto, while Oleksandr Zinchenko is still expected to leave Arsenal before the end of the window.
If both players are to depart N5, then the Gunners will be left with just an injury-prone Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Magalhaes as the options on the left-hand side of their defence.
Thus, Berta is looking to strengthen this area of Mikel Arteta’s squad and has identified Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie as a target.
Arsenal are set to make a bid for Hincapie and will look to negotiate a fee lower than his £52 million release clause.
Gunners fans are amazed by Berta’s activity in the transfer market, and the club’s willingness to spend money to give Arteta the best squad possible.
One fan wrote on X: “Can only assume Kiwior and potentially Zinchenko are on their way out before the end of the window. Hincapie is excellent though, really good signing if it comes off. Some transfer window eh, insanity.”
Another added: “That’s a 10/10 defence if we get Hincapie. I used to pray for time like this.”
One supporter wrote, simply: “Andrea Berta, you are changing our lives, hermano.”
Another posited: “Oh, so we’re really just going to solve everything in Andrea Berta’s first window. I didn’t think such things were possible at this football club.”
Meanwhile, one fan did express some concern about the spending: “Six £50m+ signings in one window is making me queasy.”
Piero Hincapie is a necessary signing for Arsenal
Many may feel the addition of yet another defender at Arsenal is unnecessary.
However, having lost Kieran Tierney, and potentially losing Kiwior and Zinchenko, the Gunners arguably needed to bolster the left-hand side of their defence from a numerical standpoint.
All three of these aforementioned players were involved during the run-in for Arsenal, and thus, it’s not impossible to imagine a scenario where the Gunners could be light in this area.
Hincapie will provide Gabriel with genuine cover and competition, while he’ll also challenge the likes of Lewis-Skelly and Calafiori.
Arsenal lack a quick left-back who is comfortable overlapping, and the Ecuadorian fits this profile perfectly.
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