Arsenal star open to leaving, but his entourage will have to persuade Mikel Arteta | OneFootball

The Poland international has shown himself to be a fine talent during his time at the Emirates Stadium, having first caught the eye in a past spell in Italy with Spezia.

Now, however, it increasingly seem like Kiwior is going to struggle for regular playing time at Arsenal, and Sacha Tavolieri reports that Napoli and Fiorentina are keen on the 24-year-old.

Still, the Sky columnist suggests it could be tricky for these clubs to afford Kiwior, while Arteta is not keen on losing depth in defence in the second half of the season.

Arsenal currently have Ben White out injured, which will surely only cement the fact that Arteta will want to be able to rely on Kiwior at some stage.

Jakub Kiwior in action for Arsenal last season (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Jakub Kiwior may want to play more, but he has an important role at Arsenal

Even if Kiwior is never likely to be a starter due to there being so much competition in this Arsenal squad, he surely has an important role to play for Arteta’s side.

AFC will have bad memories of having to play Rob Holding in defence when William Saliba got injured in the latter stages of the 2022/23 season, when Arteta and co. ended up blowing a five-point lead in the Premier League title race.

It’s surely a no-brainer to keep hold of a reliable squad player like Kiwior for as long as possible, as he can ensure the likes of Saliba or Gabriel Magalhaes aren’t too badly missed if they get injured at any point.

Arsenal are currently nine points behind Liverpool in this year’s title race, but there’s a long way to go yet, so they need to prepare as well as possible for the second part of the campaign, and letting someone like Kiwior go would be a huge risk.