Who is Yeremy Pino? Villarreal star’s playing style as Arsenal weigh up bid

Arsenal are being linked with a move for Villarreal star Yeremy Pino.

The Gunners have already been very busy this summer, spending more than £100million to improve their squad.

Mikel Arteta is intent on securing a return to the Champions League, and the club are backing him in his pursuit.

The likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko have already been snapped up, along with a number of younger stars.

And fresh claims suggest they could continue their spending with the signing of a La Liga star.

Here we get to know reported Gunners target Yeremy.

Who is Yeremy Pino?

Yeremy Pino, or Yeremy, as he is known, is a 19-year-old winger currently playing for Villarreal.

He came through the youth ranks at Las Palmas, on the Canary Islands, ahead of signing for Villarreal’s academy in 2017, at the age of 14.

The winger graduated for the first team in 2020, after playing for the ‘C’ team, and he went on to win the Europa League in that first season, starting in the final.

He made his Spain debut in 2021, after representing his nation at four youth categories, including under 19s and under-21s.

Yeremy has four senior appearances for Spain so far, netting once, while he has made 55 La Liga appearances for Villarreal, scoring nine times.

He has won the Europa League with the Yellows, also making the Champions League semi-finals last season.

What kind of player is Yeremy?

Yeremy is not the typical kind of superstar winger in so much that he does not have Kylian Mbappe speed or Neymar Jr like skill.

He is realitvely quick, and technically, he is a very gifted player, like most who come out of Villarreal’s ball-playing academy.

But his strength lies in his intelligence and reading of the game.

Yeremy is positionally excellent, able to pup up where you want a winger to be, offensively, while also protecting his full-back more than adequately.

Emery has relied upon Yeremy because of his positional intelligence, and it’s a big reason why the Spaniard started the Europa League final just over a year ago.

Very few wingers are able to be dangerous at the top end without being defensively vulnerable, but Yeremy already manages that consistently, and he’s still only 19.

Interestingly, Yeremy wasn’t quite as consistent last season as the season, prior, but Villarreal, as a whole, were not particularly impressive in La Liga.

Key injuries to the front line didn;t help their - or indeed Yeremy’s - case, but the young winger still managed six goals and four assists in the league.

Already a spain international who has a big fan in La Roja head coach Luis Enrique, Yeremy is one of the stand-out young players in La Liga, and he should only improve further from here.

The reports

The latest reports from Spain claim Arsenal are weighing up a bid worth around £34million for Yeremy, but they have not made an offer yet.

Mikel Arteta is said to be a big fan of the winger, and he wants Arsenal to complete the deal.

Villarreal could do with more salary space to complete new signings, but they find themselves with a dilemma.

Yeremy is one of their prize possessions, and he has a release clause of just under £60million, almost double what may be offered by Arsenal, or indeed Liverpool, who have also been linked.

The winger is also likely to increase in value in the coming months and years, meaning Villarreal must weigh up when is the right time to sell, and for how much.