{"id":706958,"date":"2026-07-23T11:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/706958\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:26:11","slug":"arsenal-transfer-news-gunners-interested-in-john-stones-and-ezri-konsa-after-william-saliba-injury-blow-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/706958\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal transfer news: Gunners interested in John Stones and Ezri Konsa after William Saliba injury blow | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal hold an interest in John Stones and Ezri Konsa as they look to sign a centre-back this summer following news of an extended period on the sidelines for William Saliba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Saliba has avoided the need for surgery after injuring his back during France’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Spain but the 25-year-old faces a lengthy period of rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

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Stones is available as a free agent having reached the end of his contract at Manchester City last month. Sky Sports News has reported the England defender is also a target for Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old worked with Mikel Arteta during the Arsenal manager’s time as assistant to Pep Guardiola at City.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Konsa appeared in all eight England games at the World Cup<\/p>\n

Konsa, who represented England alongside Stones at the World Cup, is four years younger than Stones at 28 and has two years remaining on his contract at Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

Sky Sports News understands Arsenal have been exploring the cost of a potential deal for Konsa but there is a significant gap in valuation with Villa.<\/p>\n

Both Konsa and Stones can also operate at right-back.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have consolidated their defensive options by completing the permanent signing of Piero Hincapie following his loan spell from Bayer Leverkusen last season.<\/p>\n

They also have Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori, Cristhian Mosquera, Jurrien Timber and Ben White as centre-back options.<\/p>\n

\"Arsenal's<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Arsenal’s win rate drops from 68 per cent to 50 per cent without William Saliba starting<\/p>\n

White has returned to training following the knee injury he suffered in May, while Timber said this week he is “hopefully back soon” as he continues his rehabilitation from a groin problem.<\/p>\n

Arteta an admirer of Stones<\/p>\n

It’s easy to see the logic behind Arsenal’s interest in Stones. He is available on a free transfer and brings a wealth of experience following a glittering 10-year spell at the Etihad Stadium during which he won 17 trophies including six Premier League titles.<\/p>\n

Arteta knows his game intimately having worked with him for three years under Guardiola and confirmed his admiration when Arsenal were rumoured to be interested in signing him in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Stones featured five times for England at the World Cup<\/p>\n

“John is a player I really like,” he said. “We followed him before we signed him when I was at City. I worked with him for many years. I know him well and when I look at centre-backs, he has many attributes that I like.”<\/p>\n

Stones’ availability on a free adds to his appeal as someone who could provide short-term cover for Saliba having proved his fitness at the World Cup, where he made five appearances for England over the course of the tournament.<\/p>\n

His injury history is, however, a concern.<\/p>\n

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Stones was limited to only 439 Premier League minutes last season due to thigh, calf and muscular injuries, and only played 547 minutes in another disrupted campaign before that.<\/p>\n

The former Everton defender did not play more than 59 per cent of Premier League minutes in any of his 10 seasons at Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Konsa attractive but tougher deal to do<\/p>\n

Konsa offers far more robustness than Stones. He has made a minimum of 33 Premier League starts in five consecutive seasons for Aston Villa and has no history of significant injury.<\/p>\n

Like Stones, he is comfortable in possession and able to withstand opposition pressure on the ball. He primarily plays as a right-sided centre-back, in the same position as Saliba, but showed his capacity to play at right-back during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"Ezri<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Konsa had the highest ground-duel success rate in the Premier League last season<\/p>\n

Konsa also boasts outstanding physical qualities and ranks as one of the Premier League’s best one-on-one defenders. In fact, according to Opta, he had the highest ground-duel success rate of any outfield player in the Premier League last term, at 73 per cent.<\/p>\n

That combativeness is sure to appeal to Arteta but signing him over Stones would require a far greater financial outlay on a player who turns 29 in October, with Aston Villa said to value him at \u00a360m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal hold an interest in John Stones and Ezri Konsa as they look to sign a centre-back this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-706958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}