Arsenal have decided to loan out young defender Konstantinos Mavropanos, with the Greek centre-back scheduled to undergo a medical with FC Nurnberg on Monday.
The 22-year-old has predominantly featured for the Under-23s this season, though made the bench in Mikel Arteta’s first two Premier League matches in charge and played 90 minutes against Standard Liege in the Europa League.
However, Arsenal are well stocked in central defence – with Mavropanos effectively sixth choice – and are keen for him to get game time elsewhere.
According to German publication Bild, Nurnberg have won the race to land the defender ahead of Werder Bremen, Dusseldorf and Hanover and he will have a medical and pen terms on Monday.
Interestingly, Stuttgart also made an approach which would have been led by director of football Sven Mislintat, who previously worked for the Gunners and was responsible for signing Mavropanos back in 2018.
The young defender’s move should be announced at the start of the week and he will then join up with Nurnberg’s squad in their warm-weather training camp in Marbella.
Although Mavropanos has been allowed to leave the Emirates by Arteta, he is still well liked at the club and they rejected any suggestion of including a purchase option in the loan.
Nurnberg sporting director Robert Palikuca revealed on Saturday that the club had agreed a ‘short-term agreement’ for a defensive player but did not want to name him until the deal had been signed off.
Mavropanos was one of the final signings made under Arsene Wenger’s reign in charge of Arsenal, though he was unearthed by ex-head of recruitment Mislintat.
He has often impressed when given cameos, though has featured just seven times in the Premier League and the Gunners are keen for him to get more consistent, regular game time elsewhere before returning to the club.
January promises to be a busy window for Arsenal, who are also on the verge of loaning out both Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe.
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