Arsenal are closing in on a major move for Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa, a transfer that further underlines the club\u2019s current win-now approach.<\/p>\n
According to The Athletic, the two clubs have already agreed an initial fee of $69.4 million, or \u00a351 million at the time, with add-ons still to be determined. A medical is expected to be arranged for Thursday, with an official announcement likely to follow soon after.<\/p>\n
If completed, the deal would push Arsenal\u2019s summer spending beyond $250 million. Bruno Guimar\u00e3es and Christos Tzolis have already arrived, while Piero Hincapi\u00e9\u2019s loan has been turned permanent. Despite the focus on attacking additions elsewhere, Arsenal have continued to strengthen defensively.<\/p>\n
That need was clear in Sunday\u2019s Community Shield, when the bench reflected a shortage of options at the back. Hincapi\u00e9 was the only defender available to Arteta.<\/p>\n
Konsa\u2019s importance also comes from his versatility. Jurri\u00ebn Timber is still recovering from a groin injury that is expected to keep him out for several more weeks, while William Saliba may be sidelined for months. In that context, Konsa offers cover across the defensive line.<\/p>\n
Initially, the plan appears to be to use him on the right side. Ben White struggled for consistency last season, in part because he was overused while Timber was unavailable, and Arteta may see Konsa as a useful solution there.<\/p>\n
Konsa did not play at right back for Villa last season, with all 48 appearances coming as one of two center backs. However, Thomas Tuchel used him as a fullback for England against Norway in a World Cup quarterfinal this summer. Andreas Schjelderup scored from that side, though Konsa could hardly be held responsible for a cross that flew into the top corner.<\/p>\n
Once Timber is fit again after the first international break at the latest, Konsa may also be considered centrally. Cristhian Mosquera has done well in spells through the middle since joining Arsenal last summer, but Konsa would still represent an upgrade.<\/p>\n
For all of that, Saliba and Gabriel remain the likely first-choice pairing when both are available. As Konsa himself said of Prince William: \u201cHe called me a Rolls-Royce once,\u201d Konsa said of the King-in-waiting. \u201cThat got stuck in my head. I\u2019ll take that all day. It was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal are close to signing Ezri Konsa, a move that could reshape Arteta’s defensive options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1843,711,2022],"tags":[59,242,182],"class_list":["post-18610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-transfer-news","category-aston-villa","category-community-shield","tag-featured","tag-injury","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}