NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Arsenal is a move for Feyenoord left-back Quilindschy Hartman just months after rejecting Chelsea, according to reports.
The 22-year-old is a key player for the Dutch giants over the past two seasons, having made his breakthrough under Arne Slot, who now manages Liverpool.
Hartman, who arrived through the club’s academy, was part of the 2022-23 Eredivisie winning team and also won the KNVB Cup last season, missed the final after undergoing knee surgery.
The youngster suffered a serious knee injury in March and did not play in the race, and his injury also ruled him out of the Netherlands squad for this summer’s European Championships.
Despite this, the Telegraph reports that Arsenal are considering making a move for Hartman; They will first wait to see how he recovers from his injury.
Hartman’s rehabilitation will continue until the start of the next Eredivisie season, and there may not be any knocks to the left-back before the January window.
But Arsenal’s scouts look up to him and consider him a player in a position to move to the Premier League.
The move may also depend on spending, as Arsenal could take advantage of Oleksandr Zinchenko or Jakub Kiwior, or even both.
Mikel Arteta’s priority for the summer window is to sign a top-level striker, but he also needs to sign a promising and emerging left-back with a longer-term attitude and that is why he is willing to wait for Hartman.
The defender is a much more orthodox and offensive left-back than the players Arteta has lately, with the Feyenoord player racking up five assists in his 26 Eredivisie appearances, as well as scoring high on metrics such as shot creation, progressive movements and passing.
However, Arsenal are the only Premier League club interested in signing the Dutchman, and Chelsea made the move in January.
The left-back is one of four key spaces the west Londoners want to have this summer, meaning they will likely drop their interest now because they want a player who can make an impact quickly.
Speaking to ESPN earlier this month, Hartman showed Chelsea’s approach: “I don’t think they need me now, but they looked for me, yes.
“The winter holidays have already begun. They arrived at Feyenoord, but at that time I didn’t need myself. I had just pulled through, started playing everything and made it to the Dutch national team. The European Championship was approaching.
“From Feyenoord it is also clear: in the summer we opened there, but not now.
“In the last few months they came back here and looked for me. Unfortunately, things turned out differently. Now I’m staying at Feyenoord, although there’s a strong possibility that it would have happened differently.
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