Mikel Arteta considered blocking Arsenal’s deadline-day deal | Football

Borussia Dortmund had to put in the hard yards to wrap up a deadline-day deal for Ethan Nwaneri, with Mikel Arteta reportedly unsure about allowing the Arsenal youngster to leave on loan.

Nwaneri returned from a somewhat frustrating loan spell with Marseille at the start of the summer and the 19-year-old’s future remained uncertain right up until the end of the transfer window.

But Dortmund intensified their interest in Nwaneri after new signing Giannis Konstantelias suffered a devastating knee injury in the side’s DFB-Pokal victory over Hamburg on Tuesday night.

Nwaneri was given assurances that he would receive significant playing time in Niko Kovac’s starting XI and talks moved in a positive direction between the youngster’s camp and the Bundesliga outfit over the following hours.

However, according to German newspaper Bild, a hesitant Arteta needed quite a bit of convincing before signing off on the attacking midfielder’s temporary departure.

It’s claimed Arteta ‘deliberated for a long time about whether’ he would regret losing Nwaneri, especially with the Premier League champions failing to bring in a left winger to fill the void left by Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli on deadline day.

The report adds that the move ‘hung in the balance’ before BVB eventually got their man, with the club’s sporting director Nils-Ole Book maintaining close contact with Arsenal chiefs ‘late into the night’ to get an agreement over the line for the England Under-21 international.

‘We were already looking for someone in that position – someone who can play one-on-one, who is fast, who is a strong dribbler,’ BVB head coach Kovac said after capturing the teenager, a product of Arsenal’s Hale End academy.

‘Nwaneri is a very talented player. He plays alongside Jobe Bellingham in the England U21 team. He is the youngest player ever to appear in the Premier League.

‘Before the World Cup, he was still training with the English national team.

‘We have signed a very good player for the year. We hope he can live up to the expectations we have for him. I am convinced he can.’

After signing on the dotted line with BVB, Nwaneri lifted the lid on why he was so keen to push through a move.

‘As soon as I heard about BVB’s interest and a meeting took place, everything developed very quickly,’ he told the club’s official website.

‘After just a few hours, there were advanced talks taking place behind the scenes.

‘As soon as I learned of their interest, I was ready to leave.’

Nwaneri revealed that he had spoken privately with Dortmund midfielder Bellingham, the younger brother of Jude, before the deal was agreed.

‘I’ve spoken to Jobe in the last few days,’ he added.

‘He asked, “What’s going on with you?”, And I told him that I couldn’t really say yet.

‘But we talked a lot. And he kept saying that I should come to BVB. I’m happy that we’ll now be playing side by side.’

Nwaneri could be in line to make his Dortmund debut this weekend when Kovac’s men return to action away to Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.

The youngster was left as an unused substitute in Arsenal’s Premier League opener with Coventry and was left out of Arteta’s squad altogether for the side’s 1-0 win away to Aston Villa.

His last competitive match came back in mid-April when came on as a second-half substitute in Marseille’s 2-0 defeat at Lorient in Ligue 1.

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