While it’s been nice to see Gabi and Saliba pocket various opponents from Haaland to Núñez to Kane and beyond, it’s become increasingly clear that we have to find better cover if not competition for one or both mainstays. Kiwior, White, and Tomiyasu can tuck in from time to time, but having that third centre-back—and one who can play both, as Calafiori can do, could prove invaluable. This is a player whom Arteta himself has targeted, and his imprimatur is difficult (but not quite impossible) to question these days.
So who is Calafiori? Aside from being devastatingly handsome, he’s a left-footed who started out as a left-back or wing-back who shifted to centre-back (cue Arteta’s salivation glands: versatility detected). He has strong passing range and established himself during the 2023-24 season as more than just one of Inter’s best players but as one of Serie A’s best defenders. His versatility could theoretically allow him to play in a back three or a back four, something that Arteta surely covets. Hell, given his ability to carry the ball forward and to shoot from distance, we at the Arsenal might have to yet again revisit the question of whether he can play DM.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I don’t rate a back-up CB as very high on our list of needs, but a back-up CB who can also slot in at DM as we prepare for the post-Partey era will know how eager I am to move on from that era. If we can indeed pry Calafiori away from Inter for €50m, we could address two areas of need and depth. The Italian could do more than merely rotate from time to time with both Gabi and Saliba; he could conceivably start as a #6 to replace Partey, giving license to Rice to maraud further up the pitch knowing that a defense-minded midfielder is shielding Gabi and Saliba (not that they seem to need much shielding).
There’s a chance, however, that Bologna and the player are trying to leverage our interest in said player to extract a higher fee and wage-packet from Juventus, who are apparently Calafiori’s preferred destination. If the lad wants to join a dysfunctional, fading side, that would say a lot about his ambitions and his character. Along similar lines, it’s worth noting that Calafiori spent a year playing at Bologna under Thiago Motta who, as of 12 June 2024, is now the manager of—you guessed it—Juventus.
If Calafiori wants to join the sinking ship that is Juventus, that says a hell of a lot more about him than it does about us. It starts to feel like Adrien Rabiot or Dušan Vlahović or Julian Draxler: promising players who, in the end, lack the bite or the drive to join a squad that wants to fight rather than coast.
We’ll have to monitor the situation. On the one hand, he seems like a promising, exciting, perhaps even dynamic player. His next move will tell us a lot about the degree to which his hunger and his ambition match the afore-mentioned qualities.
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