Arsenal inserted a confidentiality clause in the recent deal for Jakub Kiwior – in a bid to prevent Chelsea hijacking it – and will conduct business like this in future.
That's the incredible claim made by renowned transfer guru, Gianluca Di Marzio to goal.pl, following the Gunners' capture of the Spezia defender. The deal came somewhat out of the blue, with very few links to the Poland international before he signed a deal at the Emirates Stadium.
Now, Di Marzio said this was entirely deliberate, as Mikel Arteta and sporting director Edu insisted on complete silence in the move, to avoid a repeat of Chelsea taking their target.
"It was a strange deal because after the Mudryk deal collapsed, Arsenal wanted to put in the contracts with the agents and clubs, all the parties involved in the deal, they couldn't speak about the deal otherwise it wouldn't go forward," Di Marzio says.
"After Mudryk, where everybody was talking about him, then Chelsea arrived and got the player, now Arsenal have decided probably in every deal, this 'silent' part of the contract."
"Nobody knew about Kiwior to Arsenal till the end of this deal. And I understand Arsenal because every player they want to get, Chelsea arrives and offers more. I think it is difficult now even for English clubs with the ghost of Chelsea doing a deal with other clubs without anyone knowing."
With the example of Kiwior moving to the Gunners, it seems as though Arsenal moved quickly in order to beat the competition who were waiting until the summer.
"In the beginning, he (Kiwior) was a target of AC Milan but they wanted to do it in the summer," Di Marzio continues.
"Napoli too and they also wanted to do in the summer. Villarreal tried, Borussia Dortmund tried. Arsenal was very quick and speedy because they anticipated that other clubs could arrive in June.
"Arsenal were very good in this deal and even from Spezia nobody talked because they were afraid the deal couldn't go forward.
"He is a very good player and I think Arsenal arrived first and the key was to anticipate the move in January because in June, Kiwior could have gone anywhere."
Kiwior is valued at €8m by Transfermarkt.
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