The international break has begun, and the curse that runs alongside transfer deadline day is that fans are deprived of seeing their new signings until after these games are played. Held back from seeing their new signings, Arsenal did indeed complete an eighth summer addition with the clock ticking down to 7pm on Monday evening.
Piero Hincapie has joined on a season-long loan move from Bayer Leverkusen, which has an option to make the deal permanent next summer for £45million. football.londonunderstands that all parties believe this will be a formality regardless of what happens this season.
The primary reason the move was constructed in such a way was so that the outlay would be reflected in next year’s accounts. While Hincapie comes straight in, it might be that fans have to wait even beyond the Nottingham Forest game, the first match back after the break, to see him feature.
As an Ecuador international with more than 40 caps despite being only 23, he is an important part of Sebastian Beccacece’s team and a regular starter playing in the centre of defence and even holding the captain’s armband on occasion. He can, of course, play at left-back and has, but these days he mainly starts in the middle in a back two or a back three.
Ecuador’s two World Cup qualifier matches take place on Friday at 00:30am, UK time, against Paraguay away from their home stadium. On Wednesday, they will host Argentina at midnight UK time.
This means that the earliest that Hincapie could return would be late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. He would need to be assessed following the game against Argentina, allowed recovery time, and then hope to get some training in, perhaps on Friday.
With Arsenal playing an early kick-off on Saturday, it is unlikely that Hincapie will start the game, and of course, he could still be unable to play at all. Thankfully, Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Magalhaes have so far, touch wood, not suffered any issues.
Therefore, he could make his debut for Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Gunners face Athletic Club in Bilbao, looking to kick off their European hopes in the best way possible.
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