Arsenal’s recruitment team reportedly identified Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie as an option before the club prioritised pushing through the transfer of Riccardo Calafiori.
Calafiori’s move to Arsenal was made official yesterday, with the Italy international linking up with Gunners boss Mikel Arteta and his squad on their pre-season tour in the US.
Still, it seems Arsenal’s recruitment department also had a look at some other names for that role, with The Athletic claiming that Hincapie was someone else whose name came up.
The report also mentioned Ajax wonderkid Jorrel Hato, who has also been mentioned to us before by Charles Watts in his exclusive Daily Briefing column.
Previously, Liverpool have also been linked with Hincapie by Neil Jones and others, though for now it seems he’s perhaps not close to leaving Leverkusen.
Arsenal fans will surely be pretty happy with the Calafiori deal, even if there were clearly some other good options, with the 22-year-old perhaps standing out as one of the most impressive talents on the market.
The Athletic claim that Arsenal were happy to pay big for Calafiori, as they see it as a good investment even if his price may have been inflated slightly by good performances at the Euros, and the fact that Bologna would always have to pay 50% of whatever fee they received to the player’s former club FC Basel.
Calafiori looks an ideal fit for Arteta’s style of play, even if one imagines Hincapie could also have done a job there and could also soon earn a move to another big club.
Leverkusen, however, will surely be desperate to keep this promising squad together after their success under Xabi Alonso last season.
Hincapie was a key part of that Leverkusen side that won the title unbeaten, and reached the Europa League final, so the Ecuador international can surely be happy if he ends up staying with the German side, who are clearly going places.