{"id":642447,"date":"2024-07-01T12:51:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T16:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=642447"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:47:24","slug":"arsenal-riccardo-calafiori-transfer-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/07\/01\/arsenal-riccardo-calafiori-transfer-news\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Interest is There’ – Arsenal Monitoring Riccardo Calafiori as the Search for a Left-Sided Defender Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The left side of the Gunners’ defence is a problem yet to be solved. As the search for a <\/span>specialist<\/span> in that position continues, Arsenal have recently turned their attention towards Bologna <\/span>centre-back<\/span> Riccardo Calafiori.<\/span><\/p>\n

Riccardo Calafiori Added to Arsenal Transfer Wishlist<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Solution to Gunners\u2019 Left-Back Woes?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, while speaking on <\/span>The Here We Go<\/span> podcast, revealed that Arsenal <\/span>have<\/span> been monitoring Calafiori. He said: “Bologna <\/span>expect<\/span> Premier League clubs to enter the race for Riccardo Calafiori. Arsenal have an interest, it is not a negotiation, but interest is there.”<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta has not been satisfied with his current defensive choices at left-back. All the available players seem to be lacking different required traits: Zinchenko’s lack of defensive diligence, Kiwior’s lack of passing range, and Tomiyasu being a right-back by nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/span><\/strong>: <\/span>Three Things Arsenal Can Do Next Season To Tackle The Left-Back Conundrum<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Arteta’s demands led him to Ajax’s <\/span>Jorrel Hato<\/span><\/a>. However, the youngster is <\/span>determined to stay<\/span><\/a> in the Netherlands for <\/span>the time being<\/span>. Now the Arsenal manager has set his sights on Calafiori. The left-footed star can feature as a left-back or as a centre-back.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Italian was crucial to his country’s progression<\/a> to the Round of 16 at Euro 2024. However, he missed his side’s knockout game with Switzerland due to a suspension and hence it was less of a surprise to see Italy crash out of the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which Other Clubs Are Interested in Calafiori?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Juventus are Calafiori’s first-choice club. But Thiago Motta joining The Old Lady<\/em> as the new manager, after refusing to renew his contract with Bologna, has the potential to play spoilsport in a transfer for the defender.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/span><\/strong>: <\/span>Three Positions That Arsenal Need To Prioritise In This Transfer Window<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Fabrizio said: “He\u2019s [Calafiori] a player who already gave the green light to a potential move, in this case to Juventus. But between Bologna & Juventus because of the Thiago Motta case, the relationship <\/span>in<\/span> this moment is not <\/span>that easy<\/span>. They won’t make Juventus’ life easy in the negotiations for Riccardo Calafiori.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Chelsea are another club who could make a move for Calafiori.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The left side of the Gunners’ defence is a problem yet to be solved. As the search for a specialist in that position continues, Arsenal have recently turned their attention towards Bologna centre-back Riccardo Calafiori. Riccardo Calafiori Added to Arsenal Transfer Wishlist The Solution to Gunners\u2019 Left-Back Woes? Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, while speaking on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5155,"featured_media":641965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,8,3,7188],"tags":[32739,32738,3190],"class_list":["post-642447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-arsenal","tag-arsenal-fixtures","tag-arsenal-transfer-news"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664068,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642447\/revisions\/664068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}