28-year-old “keen to leave Arsenal” and concrete talks have already taken place | OneFootball

The Bundesliga giants have supposedly been interested in the Ukraine international for some time now, and there have been some concrete contacts to explore the possibility of a deal this January.

Sky Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg has reported on the Zinchenko situation, stating that the player wants to leave Arsenal, which makes sense after he’s become much less of a regular in Mikel Arteta’s first-team for the last year or so.

See below for details in Plettenberg’s post on X, formerly Twitter…

Zinchenko could be a useful signing for Dortmund at left-back, even if he’s had his ups and downs at Arsenal in recent times.

The 28-year-old isn’t the most solid defensively, but he offers great quality on the ball, so could still surely be an asset for a lot of big clubs around Europe.

How the left-back role has evolved at Arsenal

Oleksandr Zinchenko warming up for Arsenal (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Zinchenko started brightly at Arsenal when he joined from Manchester City in the summer of 2022, but it seems Mikel Arteta’s demands for that role have changed in more recent times.

Many of the Gunners’ best performances in the last year or so have come with stronger defensive players in that role, even if the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Jakub Kiwior and Myles Lewis-Skelly also offer good passing ability when they drift into midfield.

Arteta has made Arsenal a solid defensive unit, though, and that made Zinchenko an obvious weak link back there, with now surely being the right time for both parties to go their separate ways.

Arsenal have had some trouble with injuries, though, particularly to Calafiori as he’s struggled to stay fit since joining from Bologna in the summer, so there could be some risk in letting a useful squad player like this leave.