Arsenal once pursued two leading midfielders, Dean Huijsen and Marc Guehi, but they finally chose to recruit Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia. Why is that?
Since the summer transfer period 2025 opened, Arsenal had set the goal of recruiting a quality center -back as a backup plan for the pillar of the pillar William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes. With both of which are a solid defensive foundation to help Arsenal keep the record at least in the Premier League for two consecutive seasons, many fans find it difficult to understand when the club is willing to spend a large budget for a player … just to reserve.
However, the reality showed that Arsenal was very serious in finding people, expressing strong interest in Dean Huijsen (on the Bournemouth payroll at that time) and Marc Guhi (Crystal Palace). They are ready to activate the £ 50 million liberation term of Huijsen, while Palace shook his head with a proposal of 55 million pounds from Tottenham for Guehi in January.
However, both deals are not feasible. According to the Telegraph, both Huijsen (now joining Real Madrid) and Guehi want to be kicked weekly, what Arsenal cannot guarantee because of the certainty of Saliba and Gabriel. Therefore, Arsenal turned to Mosquera, who was much cheaper (13 million pounds), but possessing great development potential.
Mosquera only has 1 year contract with Valencia so the fee is low, but the quality cannot be overlooked. He has been enrolled in the club's academy at the age of 12 and has had 70 main kicks in La Liga in the last two seasons, the total time to play is nearly 6,400 minutes – the most of the U21 players in the top 5 leagues in Europe, according to OPTA statistics.
Mosquera can kick the left and right center -back, even sometimes playing the right defender. With a height of 1m88, good speed and a one -on -one defensive ability, he is very suitable for the rising defense system of coach Mikel Arteta. In style, Mosquera has many similarities with Saliba.
The only weakness of Mosquera is currently the ability to fight, when he has not really dominated the space despite owning the ideal height. However, Arsenal believes that with the time and training environment at the Emirates, the 21 -year -old star can develop more comprehensively.
In the first season, Mosquera will most likely mainly play in the cup matches. However, history shows that the opportunity may be surprising because Saliba and Gabriel have all had long -term injuries, causing Arsenal to swing in turning around. Mosquera is the necessary preparation to avoid repeating that.
If developed as expected, Mosquera can completely rise to become the future of Arsenal, with a very reasonable fee and great potential – a smart deal in both financial and long -term strategies.
