Werder Bremen is leading a five-team game for Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos with Arsenal who will punish another year on loan for the young central defender.
Mavropanos, 22, enjoyed an impressive second half of the season on loan with the 2. Bundesliga club Nurnberg, sparking first level interest in a loan deal for the central defender.
football.london he understands that Werder Bremen is in the front row to secure his loan signature, but Stuttgart has also expressed interest in a deal. The latter club has Sven Mislintat as technical director, the man who for a short period as head of Arsenal hiring brought Mavropanos to the Emirates stadium from PAS Giannina in January 2018.
The initial talks are based on a loan agreement and so far there is no indication as to whether there will be an option for whichever club wins the race to sign Mavropanos permanently.
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Arsenal are heading into next season with eight central defenders in their books when William Saliba’s loan to Saint-Étienne ends. However, three of these players – David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos – will be out of contract at the end of the 2020/21 season.
A decision on where to spend Mavropanos in the coming months could be made shortly with the German league season reaching its conclusion and club planning for the next campaign.
Despite Arsene Wenger’s initial skepticism about signing, the first in which he actually had no say, Mavropanos conquered the then manager to such an extent that a loan move in the Bundesliga was canceled and continued to be part of the first team.
A serious groin injury ruled out Mavropanos for the first half of the following season and fought for fitness during Unai Emery’s reign, prompting Arsenal to sanction a loan deal with the young man to return to the team’s first action.
Mavropanos’ spell in Germany proved to be successful in 11 Bundesliga games and the team’s relegation playoff first leg against Ingolstadt, helping his teammates to a 2-0 victory that led them to retain the their place in the second level of German football.
Arsenal has found Germany as a productive place to lend players in recent seasons with Reiss Nelson (Hoffenheim), Emile Smith Rowe (RB Leipzig) and Jordi Osei-Tutu (VfL Bochum) spending all of the time in the country’s first two divisions .
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