Arsenal eye £21m 'fearless' defender in potential Serie A January player swap transfer deal

Arsenal are said to be contemplating the idea of selling defensive star Takehiro Tomiyasu as they eye Inter Milan’s Yan Bisseck as a potential alternative.

The Japanese defender is plays a role in one of the best defensive line-ups in the Premier League. However, he has been plagued with injuries over the course of his career, making him an arguably unreliable option for Gunners’ head coach Mikel Arteta.

The 25-year-old full-back has missed 44 games for both club and country since February 2022 with this figure only set to go up as he recovers from the latest set-back, a strained calf.

While this does not bode well for Arteta when considering his options in the ongoing season, reports from InterLive have suggested that Tomiyasu is now a player the Gunners head coach could ‘easily do without’ and it has been claimed that the defender has been offered to Inter Milan. It is not yet known, however, whether this is said to be by his agents or Arsenal themselves.

The Serie A champions are not said to need Tomiyasu right now but there is believed to be a player at the San Siro stadium that Arteta wishes to bring to N7. InterLive claims that Arteta wishes to bring German star Yan Bisseck to the Emirates if they can send his Japanese counterpart in the opposite direction.

Bisseck, 23, is claimed to be a player Arteta ‘likes a lot’ and the reports suggest the Gunners could offer Inter around £21 million to sign him.

At 6ft 5in tall, Bissek has been called a ‘colossus of a man’ with his strength able to completely ‘dominate his opponents’. Player Analysis from Breaking the Lines also added that the German U21 star as “fearless in both ground and aerial duels”.

Starting his career with Koln, the centre-back enjoyed loan spells at the likes of Holstein Kiel, Vitoria Guimaraes and AGF before moving to the latter Danish Superliga club permanently in 2022. He has been with the Serie A champions since 2023, helping them to win the 2023/24 domestic title and currently has eight appearances for the Germany U21 international squad.