Arsenal appear to be resigned to losing Hector Bellerin to Barcelona this summer
Arsenal fans should hold off on ordering Hector Bellerin jerseys this summer. The club’s latest inquiries on the transfer market illustrate their fear that the talented defender may be headed to Barcelona this summer.
The Gunners are already planning for the departure of one of their most talented young players. Reports from Italy claim that Arsenal are hot on the trail of Napoli’s Elseid Hysaj to replace Bellerin at right back. The Albanian international was very impressive for his country in their narrow opening loss to Switzerland in Euro 2016.
The 22-year-old defender was a fixture in the Napoli starting 11 and featured 37 times for the Serie A club on the season. While he showed real flashes of promise, he struggled to find a great deal of consistency given his youth. He was only able to post a Whoscored.com player rating average of 6.90 on the year.
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Arsenal will need him to play much better, much more consistently, if he’s going to have a prayer of replacing Bellerin in the Gunners’ starting 11. The 21-year-old Spaniard posted an impressive Whoscored.com rating of 7.2 in 36 Premier League appearances. Even more impressively, he significant raised the quality of his play in his club’s 6 Champions League appearances.
Losing a young player of that quality could put a damper on what’s been a pretty bright start to the transfer season for Arsenal. Manager Arsene Wenger has already added Granit Xhaka to solidify his club’s midfield and the Gunners have also been heavy linked to Leicester City stars Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante this summer. It appears that Wenger is finally ready to spend big in an effort to capture the Premier League title.
Bellerin was being counted on as a regular starter in the Arsenal back four. Swapping him out, even if for a talented player like Hysaj, could make the Gunners quite vulnerable in defense. His departure would put even more pressure on centre backs Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker to improve their performance from last year. Otherwise, Arsenal may be a club that scores tons of goals, but lacks the talent in defense to really grab a place among Europe’s elite clubs.
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Losing Hector Bellerin would be a tough pill for Arsenal to swallow, but at least the Gunners aren’t going to be caught without a viable plan B. Time will tell if a young, unproven talent like Elseid Hysaj can make up for the loss of one of the club’s most talented starlets.