Mikel Arteta is on the hunt for a right-back this summer as Arsenal are lacking depth in the first-team and Stefan Bienkowski says the Gunners are in talks to sign Jeremie Frimpong.
Calum Chambers moved to Aston Villa in 2021, Hector Bellerin moved to Barcelona in 2022, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was released in 2023 and Cedric Soares could follow him out the exit door, so the Gunners may be left with Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Ben White played in the makeshift role last season, but Arsenal have seemingly identified Frimpong as his successor. Journalist Bienkowski says Arsenal are in talks with Leverkusen over a possible deal but the discussions are at an early stage.
The 22-year-old has thrived at Bayer Leverkusen with 11 goals and 20 assists from 95 appearances, so Bienkowski says is would take an offer of at least £43m to persuade the Bundesliga outfit to do business with Arsenal.
Frimpong began his career at Manchester City, making 41 appearances for the U18s and 21 appearances for the U21s before joining Celtic in 2019. The Netherlands-born defender had a hand in 11 goals from 51 games with the Hoops before Leverkusen came knocking in 2021.
The Bundesliga outfit paid £9.4m to sign Frimpong from Celtic but want in excess of £43m for the right-back two years later. Arsenal have already signed Kai Havertz for £60m and are set to sign Declan Rice for £105m, so it remains to be seen if they’ll take their spending over £200m in one transfer window.
A deal might be part funded by Soares’ departure, as he doesn’t appear to have a future at the Emirates. The 31-year-old was loaned out to Fulham last season and hasn’t played for Arsenal since 2022.
Frimpong has two years remaining on his deal at the BayArena, but he’d surely jump at the chance to play Champions League football with the Premier League runners-up. Leverkusen finished sixth in the Bundesliga last season, so joining Arsenal would be a major step up.
Signing another right-back would allow Arteta to use White as a centre-back again too, but there has been no official bid made for Frimpong yet.
