Arsenal pursue complex transfer for Championship loanee | OneFootball

Arsenal are interested in a complicated move for Nottingham Forest loanee Djed Spence, after the right-back impressed against the Gunners.

The Mirror report that Arsenal are eyeing a January move for Djed Spence, the Middlesbrough right-back currently on loan with Nottingham Forest.

Any deal wouldn’t be straightforward. Arsenal would need Middlesbrough to recall him so Arsenal could buy him, and then they’d have to loan him back out to either Middlesbrough or Nottingham Forest.

You can’t play for three clubs in one season, and Spence has already played for Middlesbrough and Forest, so he wouldn’t be eligible for Arsenal until the summer.

There’s reportedly a ‘growing expectation’ Spence might move this window despite those restrictions, as the likes of Arsenal, AS Roma, and Inter Milan circle. Waiting until summer may well mean missing out.

Spence has made 23 appearances in all competitions this season, including his four for Middlesbrough. But he would have primarily caught Arsenal’s eye in the 1-0 FA Cup win for Forest over them.

Arsenal would have had one eye on Forest’s performances even before that, given the loan of Jordi Osei-Tutu to the club.

Osei-Tutu has since been recalled after various injury problems, but Spence remains a consistent presence in the side.

Even though Arsenal have Osei-Tutu, Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, and Calum Chambers at the club behind Takehiro Tomiyasu, it seems unlikely many of them will stick around beyond the summer.

A move for another young right-back to challenge Tomiyasu seems very possible.