Arsenal are considering Manchester City central defender Eric Garcia as a free agent signing in the summer transfer window, reports TheAFCBell.
The 19-year-old Catalan defender is admired by Mikel Arteta for his astute reading of the game and tactical understanding.
They add that Barcelona, who continue to be heavily linked with the player will offer fierce competition to the Gunners. However, Eric Garcia isn’t Arsenal’s only option, with the North London club also having several other options on their shortlist for the right center back position.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi are all set to leave Arsenal in the summer as free agents and as widely reported, the club will be looking for reinforcements.
This is going to be one to really watch out for considering AFCBell’s credible track record.
Many Arsenal fans have lamented this potential signing on social media considering the William Saliba situation – the 19-year-old defender has found himself ostracized from the squad.
The player was set to go out on loan initially, but Arsenal couldn’t get it done in time. To make matters worse, Saliba was left out of the European squad registration and hasn’t made a Premier League squad since opening day. Interest from France to take him on a January loan only continues to grow.
Eric Garcia is of a similar age to Saliba – would Arsenal put their faith in two 20 year old central defenders next season? Time will tell.
Garcia has 16 Premier league appearances for Manchester City and 4 caps for Spain – not bad at all for a 19 year old.
Pep Guardiola, speaking in October re-iterated his intention to try and keep Garcia, stating: ‘”I know he wanted to leave but he’s going to stay and maybe we can seduce him in this year to extend the contract with us.”
As things stand, Garcia will leave Man City as a free agent once his contract expires in the summer.
