There have been rumors all season that Aaron Hickey Arsenal and their potential transfer. Reports claim that the Serie A club is "preparing for life without the fullback" and that it is just a matter of "when not if, he moves," and this speculation shows no signs of abating.
Arsenal Aaron Hickey: Potential Transfer
Hickey would cost around £20M, and Brentford appears to be the Gunners' biggest competitor for his signature. The Scottish and Italian press has reported that Arsenal is the frontrunner to sign the 20-year-old, although the club's normal sources are less certain.
David Ornstein recently reported that the Gunners are interested in signing Hickey, but doing so may depend on trading away some of the team's less popular players. According to Ornstein, rumors that Arsenal had made a formal offer and that a fee had been agreed upon were "far off of the mark."
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it turned out that Bologna and Hickey's agent utilized Arsenal's possible but not certain interest to up the asking price. Compared to other London stories, the absence of coverage of Hickey-to-Arsenal by the top London reporters causes me to worry.
They Are Backing Up
Adding Hickey "feels" like a Brentford move as well. They're a heavily analytics-driven team, but his stats don't exactly leap off the page. He would be a good fit for the Bees both on the field and in the front office from a develop-and-sell perspective, given his age, the opportunity for improvement, and ability to make rapid forward progress.
In order to replace Kieran Tierney, Arsenal needs a dependable backup in the manner of a 1B rather than a traditional bench warmer. Tierney's inability to avoid injuries has been detrimental to the Gunners, who have missed him at both ends of the field.
Is he Aaron Hickey, the one you're looking for? To be honest, I have no idea. However, his offensive performances make up for his lackluster defensive stats. It's impressive that he scored five goals in Serie A as a left defender last season, but I'm not sure how often that happens.
Aaron Hickey Arsenal News
Hickey is a twenty-year-old guy. There is an opportunity for improvement in his game, but he doesn't strike me as someone Arsenal needs to play in the wing-back position right now, behind Kieran Tierney. If you disagree with me that the Gunners should enter next season with Nuno Tavares as the second left back, then Hickey is probably not the option you're seeking, as I do not believe Hickey to be more polished than Nuno.
Arsenal may be willing to take a chance on Tierney's health and make do with the players they have this season to invest in the long-term growth of Tavares and/or Hickey. For the simple reason that contemplating it makes me queasy, I'll propose an alternative. Let me emphasize that this is all conjecture on my part; I have seen nothing to warrant believing this is even a possibility.
Other Opinions
Arsenal is now in the midst of a youth movement rebuild that aims to reshape the roster for years to come, but perhaps the position of backup left-back is one where they could choose for a shorter-term, senior solution that would ideally come cheap.
I just advised that Arsenal make another acquisition this summer. Instead, the team may get by with a free agent or bargain-bin addition on a one-year contract. Not much appears to be accessible, though, on that score. However, Marcelo is available. He's a trophy winner with ties to Brazil through Edu! Please recognize the humorous intent of the preceding statement.
Trust David Ornstein is not exactly a risky recommendation, but that's the one I'm making here. It's unlikely that Arsenal would sign Hickey until they sell other players to raise cash. After signing Fabio Vieira and potentially Gabriel Jesus and Youri Tielemans, the Gunners could spend nearly £100 million this summer.
This is not even considering the raise Eddie Nketiah will receive. And most significantly, before the *fingers crossed* contract renewal for Bukayo Saka (and massive raise). What a large sum of money! When it comes to Arsenal's seemingly endless supply of cash this summer, I have no idea where it's coming from.
As long as the club stays within the spending limits of the Premier League and adheres to Financial Fair Play, I honestly couldn't care less. And let's be honest, Everton's large debts and Manchester City, in general, show that those regulations hardly climb to the level of Pirates of the Caribbean "guidelines" (hang the code!).
Conclusion
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