Arsenal are currently in the market for a new defender and have enquired about the possibility of snapping English defender John Stones from Manchester City once the January transfer window opens for business.
90min reports that Mikel Arteta is a huge admirer of Stones, who has failed to live up to expectations since joining the Citizens from Everton some transfer windows ago. The defender is still just 26 and is believed to have some more years at the top level, but with City always eager to add more players to the squad, he keeps dropping down the pecking order.
The arrival of Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias further dampened Stones‘ hopes of getting regular game time at the Etihad, but with the latest reports making the rounds, Arsenal are willing to bring him out of his nightmare spell in the blue half of Manchester.
Aymeric Laporte is another big-name defender Manchester City have in their books and yet another player in their wide selection of options. City boss Pep Guardiola prefers the partnership of Dias and Laporte, and then third option Ake when he is fit.
Arsenal have done their bit to shuffle their defensive department with the recruitment of both David Luiz, William Saliba, and Gabriel Magalhaes in the last transfer window in a bid to add some solidity at the back.
Arteta also has the likes of Sokratis and Mustafi, alongside Rob Holding, and Pablo Mari to choose from and form a center-back pairing, but with the club looking to let go of Sokratis and Mustafi in January, Stones has been touted as the perfect center-back recruitment.
Many believe Arteta should instead focus on getting the best out of his creative players or getting more creativity to the club and suspend talks of adding more names to a department where they already have a lot of options.