Reports emerged yesterday (following an initial report by tribalfootball.com) that Arsenal (as well as Citeh and United) are keeping tabs on young Sporting Gijon defender Borja Lopez. Lopez is very highly rated in Spain and has already represented his country at U18, U19 and U20 level. Apparently Lopez has recently committed to a new deal with his club which runs until 2017 – although contained in his contract is a reported buy-out fee of £4.5m hence (I’d imagine) the interest in him.

Ok – so it’s obvious that we will have scouted him. We’ve got a lot of contacts in Spain and have had relative success in stealing players from there in recent seasons. So the idea that we have watched him is sound.  But what I can’t work out is why Wenger would be looking at Borja Lopez whilst he already has another Spanish defender in Miquel that is also waiting for his breakthrough (I even compared the two players for you here). Yes Borja Lopez is cheap – but I’d imagine that signing him would mean the end for Miquel. We are short of numbers – and will be increasingly so defensively in the summer – but I can’t see that Lopez would be granted any more opportunities than Miquel has been afforded to date – at least not initially. In some ways - he would be a very Wenger signing…..young, cheapish and talented. But would Wenger sign Lopez at the expense of Miquel? I dont think so. And on top of that I’d be even more suprised if Wenger signed Lopez to be our fourth choice centre half. The only way I could see this working is if we did sign someone like Capoue who could fill in at the back if need be – and then Lopez would be behind him in the pecking order. Having said that though – isnt that where Miquel is at the moment? So unless Miquel leaves – I’d be very suprised if anything else happened with us and this rumour (I havent even mentioned the interest from the Manchester clubs).

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