Gunners to move for Pole this summer to replace their departing full back.
Check in to Arsenal vs Sunderland
Arsenal have identified Borussia Dortmund right-back Lukasz Piszczek as the man to replace departing Frenchman Bacary Sagna at the Emirates next season.
SEE ALSO: The 10 worst Arsenal flops of the Premier League era
The north London club and Sagna have been in discussions for almost a year now about extending the 31-year-old’s contract in the capital, which runs out on June 30 2014, however, as yet the two parties have been unable to come to any sort of agreement over either the length or the size of the deal on offer.
And so now, with less than six moths to run on the experienced France international’s contract with the club, Gunners head coach Arsene Wenger is already busy making plans for who can fill Sagna’s void at right back in north London next season.
As a result, the experienced Frenchman is understood to have drawn up a short list of potential replacements for Sagna, with the names of both Feyenoord’s Daryl Janmaat and Dortmund’s Poland international believed to be Wenger’s two preferred candidates.
However, Wenger is said to favour a move for Piszczek having been closely monitoring the 28-year-old for almost two years now, with the Arsenal boss having first been impressed with the attack-minded full back following his impressive displays for the co-hosts at the 2012 European championship in Poland and Ukraine.
In fact, Piszczek was one of Poland’s only shining lights in what was a disappointing tournament, and the player has continued on in that same vein of eye-catching form for his club side during the course of the past 18 months.
Piszczek was one of Dortmund’s stars as they stunned the Continent by making it all the way to the final of last season’s Uefa Champions League against fellow Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium, with the defender’s powerful displays down his side’s right flank a constant theme of their brilliant campaign in Europe.
Arsenal actually tried to lure Piszczek to the capital last summer when the club and Sagna’s differences first began to surface, however, Dortmund refused to allow one of their most important players to leave the club so soon after Mario Goetze’s painful switch to the Allianz Arena.
But the Gunners are understood to now be far more confident of being able to persuade Jurgen Klopp and Co to do business this summer, when a bid somewhere in the region of the £15m mark will be enough to land the Pole, who is contracted to Dortmund until June 2017.