Arsenal: One transfer target from each Serie A club

Internazionale

Want to hear about someone who I’ve been interested in since ever? Good. Because he’s here, and his name is not Alexis Sanchez.

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Stefan de Vrij has been a defender floating around the peripherals of Arsenal’s transfer radar for years, mostly when he was still putting up the offensive numbers of a midfielder while playing on the defense. But now that he’s at Inter and still thriving, and in his prime years, I am just as interested in him as I always have been.

De Vrij is so good at everything and he always has been. That may seem like a classic overstatement, but it’s not. De Vrij defends like a defender, carries the ball like a midfielder and scores like a forward. The only issue there is that he can’t be in all places at once, so he has to make the most of where he is and what he’s asked to do.

He’s a dream for a Mikel Arteta defense. He’s old enough that he should be a relevant resource for another half-decade without interfering with youth development too much. This is a dream signing and I just wish that it would kick up the rumor mill again.