Jorginho will exchange Chelsea for Arsenal, Fabrizio Romano reports. The Gunners pay 13.5 million euros for the 31-year-old midfielder, who was still committed to the end of this season at Stamford Bridge. The Italian signs until mid-2024, with the option for another year. The midfielder is seen by Arsenal as an alternative to Moisés Caicedo, who does not want to let Brighton & Hove Albion go under any circumstances.
Mikel Arteta’s team saw the ideal midfield reinforcement in the Ecuadorian from Brighton. However, the number six in the Premier League did not want to know anything about a departure from his strongman, for whom Arsenal and Chelsea reportedly offered around seventy million euros. Brighton then told Caicedo, who himself submitted a transfer request via Instagram, that he did not have to come to training until the end of the window.
With Jorginho, Mikel Arteta has therefore received an extra option in midfield. The midfielder regularly contributed the captain’s armband the Blues and was usually in the starting line-up under manager Graham Potter. Chelsea therefore chooses to have a nice transfer fee left over from the Italian international, who would otherwise have walked out the door free of transfer at the end of the season.
Jorginho comes from the youth of Hellas Verona and also broke through in the first team there. After 96 games, the midfielder transferred to Napoli in January of 2014 for more than ten million euros. There he worked with, among others, Maurizio Sarri, who took him to Chelsea in 2018 for 57 million euros. The coach had to leave Stamford Bridge after just one season, but Jorginho managed to develop into a reliable player. After 213 games for the Blues Jorginho leaves for the fellow townsman.