Arsenal initially signed Jakub Kiwior as a left-sided centre-back in 2023, and the Poland international must have envisioned a future playing alongside William Saliba.
Instead, Kiwior received the bulk of his chances at left-back last campaign, a role he performed well for a long period.
However, once the limitations to Kiwior’s attacking and technical game became clear, both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu were restored once they returned from injury.
Of course, given Kiwior appeared to have had his chance and then failed to keep his spot, that naturally led to talk of the 24-year-old moving on.
Thiago Motta even wanted to make Kiwior his first signing at Juventus, several Serie A clubs have been interested.
But as TBR exclusively shared, Kiwior won’t be leaving Arsenal this summer.
The defender will remain at Arsenal and compete for his starting spot under Mikel Arteta – which he’d still prefer to be at centre-back.
And to that end, The Athletic have now been sharing some insight into how Kiwior is feeling behind the scenes right now, stuck behind Gabriel Magalhaes.
Jakub Kiwior has huge respect for Gabriel and William Saliba and will be patient
Since Kiwior arrived at Arsenal both Gabriel and Saliba have been a dominant pairing, and have missed very few games because of injury.
From Kiwior’s point of view, it must be frustrating to be scrutinised for his lack of attacking credentials at left-back, when he signed for the club to play in a central role.
But either way, according to the report mentioned, Kiwior is happy to accept the back up role he’s been handed, and will wait for an opportunity to play in his favourite position.
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The information confirms that Kiwior has huge respect for Gabriel and Saliba – understanding their position in the team.
And in truth, Kiwior’s experiences as an inverted full-back this season should only serve him well in the long-run, another facet to his game.
Of course, with such strong back up to Gabriel in the Poland international, Arsenal don’t boast the same strength on the right.
Saliba doesn’t have a natural replacement given Ben White is needed at right back.
And that therefore explains why Arsenal are preparing a bid for a £50m defender who is starring at Euro 2024 right now.