Riccardo Calafiori has no 'regret' over Arsenal transfer after frustrating injury issues
Riccardo Calafiori has no regrets over his move to Arsenal last summer and is hoping to shine next season by putting his injury woes behind him.
Calafiori joined the Gunners last year from Bologna as part of a deal worth in the region of £40million.
The defender, however, has endured a disrupted first season in north London due to fitness issues.
Calafiori has had five different spells out of the team because of injury and he has started just six games since the turn of the year, with Myles Lewis-Skelly becoming Arsenal's No1 left-back.
But, speaking after Sunday's win over Newcastle, the Italian told gianlucadimarzio.com: 'I am very happy at Arsenal.
'For me personally, it (this first season with Arsenal) was a great experience. Obviously when you win trophies it's always better.
'Here I measured myself against the most important and difficult championship in the world. I saw that I can be there easily, this made me very happy and I am convinced of the choice I made. A regret? None, absolutely.
'I always feel good in every position I play, I try to help the team. In my opinion, what was missing was just continuity this year.
'I will try to be more consistent next year. When I was good, I always played and I also made the difference. The goal is just to stay in shape all year.'
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New York Times
43 minutes ago
- New York Times
Barcelona's pursuit of Joan Garcia and the complicated goalkeeper scenario it could unleash
Barcelona are working to seal their first piece of transfer business this summer. They want to make Espanyol's Joan Garcia their new starting goalkeeper. Garcia, who's arguably been the best in his position in La Liga last season, has a €25million ($28.4m) release clause in his contract and is expected to leave his current club before the end of the transfer window. Advertisement Barca feel Garcia is a clear one-off market opportunity at this price. Sporting director Deco and manager Hansi Flick had spoken in previous weeks about wanting to sign a new winger for their team, but Garcia is expected to make a decision about his future sooner rather than later — so Barcelona have had to make up their minds quickly. They have been in contact with the player's camp and have laid the foundations of a five-year deal. Now it is all in Garcia's hands. The 24-year-old has to choose his next club — and he is not short of options. Last summer, Arsenal came very close to signing Garcia but were not able to reach an agreement with Espanyol. As much as Mikel Arteta's team still rate him highly, last season has changed Garcia's priorities: he wants to be the No 1 option wherever he moves to. At Arsenal, with Premier League Golden Glove winner David Raya established between the posts, it is highly unlikely Garcia would immediately get a starting role, so the prospect of moving to north London has cooled. Other Premier League clubs have shown interest. Newcastle have been monitoring Garcia this season, although it's understood he's not their priority target. Bournemouth are known to rate him highly too, while Manchester City have been following Garcia but are not expected to start formal talks anytime soon. 'I am very calm,' said Joan Garcia last week, when asked about his future by local radio Catalunya Radio. 'There is a lot of news coming out about me, but we've just finished the season and I want to rest a bit. From there, I will discuss my options with my people and decide what's best for me.' Once the decision is made, there is no need to even table an offer: the buying club would simply need to go to La Liga's headquarters in Madrid and pay the €25m release clause. A succession plan in goal is clearly required at Barcelona, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen (33) and Wojciech Szczesny (35) in the autumns of their respective careers — and Inaki Pena set to leave in summer. There are some promising goalkeepers in La Masia, with American international Diego Kochen being a stand-out candidate. The 19-year-old has played with Barca Atletic this season, and is expected to be more involved with the first team in 2025-26. Advertisement But adding a first-choice goalkeeper is a task that Deco knew he was going to have to resolve at some point in the next few years. With Joan Garcia, Barca are trying to do exactly that. Club sources, who, like all mentioned in this article, wanted to remain anonymous to protect relationships, believe that any elite side who go after a new goalkeeper, in current market conditions, could be forced to spend at least €60m. Garcia is seen as a top-quality prospect, and he is available for €25m — a bargain to Barca's eyes. Despite winning the league title, Flick insisted over the last few weeks of the season that his Barca squad needed some improvements. And if you analyse the previous campaign, goalkeeper is certainly an area that can be upgraded. As much as Szczesny was a decent cover, he is not seen as a title-winning goalkeeper inside the club. The Champions League semi-final against Inter, where Yann Sommer all but got them to the final, acted as a moment of realisation around the club. 'We did not lose because of Tek (Szczesny), but Inter did win thanks to Sommer,' a dressing-room source said after the Inter game. Besides Szczesny, there is Ter Stegen. He is the club captain, an important dressing-room figure and a player who has now recovered from the severe knee injury he suffered last October. But doubts about Ter Stegen have loomed for multiple seasons. He was outstanding in the 2022-2023 season, when Xavi's Barca won La Liga, but has failed to hit consistent heights throughout his 11-year Barcelona career so far. Ter Stegen has been involved in all Barcelona's traumatic Champions League nights, from Rome to the 8-2 against Bayern to the 4-0 defeat at Anfield in 2019. The last couple of seasons have not been memorable for the 33-year-old, and the intention to change the guard at Barcelona is now very real. Garcia's profile is seen at Barca as a guaranteed upgrade to all that. He has been an excellent shot-stopper, while having the potential to be a perfect fit in Flick's high-line system. But if Joan Garcia joins Barcelona, it will leave the Catalans with a complex situation to manage in their goalkeeping ranks. Ter Stegen would inevitably see his role at the club questioned more than ever. His current contract runs to 2028, beyond his 36th birthday. And on international duty with Germany this week, the goalkeeper confirmed he has no intention of leaving Barcelona. Advertisement 'Nobody at the club spoke with me about this situation so I'm not worried,' Ter Stegen said on Sunday at a press conference. 'I know I will be at Barcelona next season.' Barca have also offered Szczesny a new contract to stay as a back-up goalkeeper. The club's ideal scenario would be to get Garcia in and offload Ter Stegen but, listening to his recent comments, that seems unlikely. All this context would add an extra layer of pressure to Joan Garcia to deliver the expected performances, as if his signing wasn't already tinged with controversy. Garcia's name has been in everyone's mouths around Barcelona over the past couple of weeks. He would be the first player in 31 years to move from Espanyol to their local rivals — and just the 14th ever registered. Relationships between both clubs and fanbases have always been tense from a local rivalry perspective, although the sense of bitterness is understandably bigger from the Espanyol point of view. The Pericos are the smaller club in the city, and have often felt ignored and overshadowed by the global brand down the road. Garcia has been the face of Espanyol on and off the pitch throughout the season, claiming to be a proud fan, kissing the badge when the team secured their La Liga safety. He comes from a family of Barcelona fans, but he joined the Espanyol youth ranks at 15 and made his way through professional football at the club. Senior figures at Espanyol have spoken publicly on the subject, and admitted they would be surprised if the 24-year-old opts to join Barca. 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New York Times
44 minutes ago
- New York Times
Gyokeres or Sesko for Arsenal? We asked agents, sporting directors and coaches who they'd pick
Should Arsenal sign RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko or Sporting CP's Viktor Gyokeres? That is the debate among the Premier League team's supporters, and possibly within the club itself. Sesko, 22, has long been considered one of the most promising young talents in Europe, and his 14 goals in 2024-25, including a run of seven in the German side's final seven games, further proved his potential. Gyokeres is five years older but has been one of the most consistent players in the game over the past two seasons, scoring 68 league goals for his Portuguese team. Advertisement Both, however, are unknown quantities in the Premier League. Gyokeres has been on the books of Brighton & Hove Albion, Swansea City and Coventry City in the English game, but only ever played in the domestic cups during three years with the former, who loaned him out to the latter two in the second-tier Championship during the 2020-21 season before Coventry bought him the following summer. While Newcastle United's Alexander Isak has long been Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta's first-choice centre-forward purchase, a deal for the 25-year-old Swede appears beyond his reach, given his current club have also qualified for next season's Champions League. The debate over who Arsenal should sign is nuanced — and it could be they opt for a different player — but part of the discussion is whether they sign a 'project player' in Sesko or go for the slightly older, more experienced Gyokeres. Which to go for is a question for Arteta, new sporting director Andrea Berta and the club to answer. So The Athletic spoke to agents, sporting directors and head coaches to see what they would do. If they are to sell Sesko this summer, Leipzig's preference is to do so early so they can rebuild their squad over the coming weeks. Given they failed to qualify for the Champions League, his departure would help plug a financial gap. 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It can be difficult for supporters to find common ground when it comes to who Arsenal should sign out of Gyokeres and Sesko, as is often the case when confronted with a binary choice, and people working in the football industry are no different. One agent, in contrast to the head coach quoted above, believes Arsenal would be better served targeting Gyokeres and dismissed the idea they would lose value because of the Swedish forward's age. 'If you sign a striker who is 27 years old (which Gyokeres turns this week) and, as a club, you have him for four years, then you've done well out of that deal,' the agent says. 'The reality is that clubs don't keep players for multiple years now anyway, so Arsenal have to decide who is going to help them win today, not in four years' time — and it is difficult to look beyond Gyokeres' record. 'If you had two players who had exactly the same output and exactly the same style, you would naturally go for the player who is four years younger. But in this instance, they are two players with completely different goalscoring records, so you sign the player that gets you over the line in terms of winning titles.' Another agent offered an alternative outlook. 'You just sign the best player, right?' they said. 'You take into account your style of play and who is better suited to your system. 'With every transfer, there is an element of not having a crystal ball. Someone like Sesko may not develop how you think he will, while Gyokeres may not be any good in the Premier League. But if there is that much of a question mark over each player, then maybe it's not the right one (in either case) and they should be looking elsewhere.' Arsenal had targeted Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins in January, while one agent ironically suggested they should take a look at Monaco's Mika Biereth. Biereth, 22, was at Arsenal between 2021 and 2024, although he did not feature for the first team and was loaned to RKC Waalwijk of the Netherlands in 2022-23, Scotland's Motherwell in the first half of 2023-24 and then Sturm Graz of Austria before joining the latter permanently last summer. In January, the Denmark international was sold to Monaco in a deal reportedly worth up to €15million (12.6m/$17.1m at current rates), and scored 13 goals in 16 Ligue 1 appearances. Les Reed, a former technical director at the Football Association and once vice-chairman of Southampton, has negotiated endless transfers and is well-versed in identifying which player to opt for once a shortlist of targets has been compiled. Berta joined Arsenal earlier this year as their new sporting director, having most recently worked for Atletico Madrid. He, along with Arteta, is going to have a crucial role in signing the club's new striker. So, how does the relationship between a sporting director and manager work? 'The important thing is clarity,' Reed, now heading up Reed Consulting, tells The Athletic. 'If you've done a good job and you've got the right people in place, everybody should be on the same page. 'If you take a club like Arsenal, the expectation is for them to win now, but there is a secondary expectation that they will be sustainable and continue to win.' Reed notes a 'key question' that will be asked internally is whether Sesko is ready, at this stage of his career, to lead the line at a club such as Arsenal and help them win the Premier League. 'That's going to be the big debate they'll be having,' Reed adds. 'The safe decision would be Gyokeres, because you know he's still scoring goals frequently and would probably be the answer now. But there's no guarantee someone experienced who is knocking in goals at the top level is going to come in and make that transition either. 'It's a fine line, but that's what Andrea is getting paid the big bucks for — to get it right, to satisfy his manager and the club's owners and fans.' On Berta, Reed notes the importance of a new sporting director wanting to hit the ground running, especially when everyone knows not having a striker ultimately played a part in costing Arsenal a shot at winning the 2024-25 title. It will be imperative for the Italian to get the decision right. And asked how it plays out if there are internal disagreements over which target should be chosen, Reed believes they are few and far between — especially when you narrow the pool of players down to only a handful. Advertisement 'If you're in disagreement at this stage, there is something wrong about the way you're working together and the way you're drawing up your shortlists,' Reed says. 'If you're working from a long list down to a shortlist, the sporting director and manager should both be involved in those discussions all the way to the point where, if you're down to two players, you are going to be happy with either one. 'And if you are happy with either player, then it would probably be easier to go with the coach's view.' What also needs to be considered is how any potential arrival impacts the wider squad. The head coach we spoke to who favours a move for Sesko, for example, raises the importance of selecting a striker who helps get the best out of other Arsenal players, such as Kai Havertz. The German was signed as an attacking midfielder but has been used predominantly as a central striker by Arteta. 'Havertz is the type of player Sesko needs around him,' the coach says. 'For me, Havertz's best position is the No 10 role and not a striker. So, if you want to play with a 10 and a striker, then Havertz and Sesko can work that way. 'From what I saw of Arsenal last season, they were a little bit more direct and if they had a target player like Sesko up front, and then Havertz in the No 10 position, then it could be interesting next season.' The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Arsenal require a central striker this summer, but whether that is Gyokeres, Sesko or somebody else remains up for debate. Do Arsenal want to go for a proven goalscorer with no Premier League experience, or a still-developing 'project player' who could become a leading forward at the club for years to come? It's a big moment for Artera, Berta and the rest of the Arsenal hierarchy. (Top photos of Sesko, left, and Gyokeres: Getty Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Gossip: Man City want £55m Reijnders
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