5ft 11in La Liga CB Could Join Arsenal, Once Voted His Club’s Best Player

Arsenal are interested in signing Mexican defender and Espanyol defender, Hector Moreno reports the Daily Mail. The paper reports that Arsenal scout Brian McDermott was at the match against Espanyol and Valencia was in Spain on Tuesday night to run the rule over the central defender.

Arsenal’s need for another central defender dates back to last summer and beyond. The subsequent failure of the club to address that need has caused several defensive frailties throughout the season, and the situation has been exacerbated by the spate of defensive injuries that has hit the squad this season.

The defender, who stands at just 6ft has 57 caps for Mexico. He has not featured much this season, because of a injury he suffered at the World Cup while playing for Mexico. The 26 year old suffered a broken tibia during Mexico’s round of sixteen tie with Holland at the World Cup in Brazil. As a result, he has featured just five times for Espanyol this season. However, in his first season with the Catalan club, the 2011/2012 season, he was voted the club’s player of the year after featuring in 35 games for the club, with a total of 3295 minutes played.

Arsene Wenger has indicated that he would make it a priority to bolster his defence in the January transfer window, although several names have been sounded out, nothing has so far materialised. With Mathieu Debuchy facing up to three months out with a dislocated shoulder, it again puts additional pressure on a backline that is already over stretched this season. There are indications that the manager will make haste to dip into the market to sign a defender after what happened on Sunday. The name of Hector Moreno is another in the long list of defenders that have been mentioned in the press since the January window opened two weeks ago.

Arsenal would have to move quickly to secure a deal for the Mexican, as he is also interesting other Premier League clubs including Tottenham Hotspur and Swansea.

Tottenham Hotspur’s link to Hector Moreno stem from Mauricio Pochettino’s time as manager of Espanyol few years ago, as both worked together while the Argentine was in Spain.

This is another name out of the hat. While Per Mertesacker could do with a rest, but cannot get it because of the dearth of replacement, then there is Laurent Koscielny, who looks distinctively unfit still after his Achilles troubles, yet cannot get enough time out to recover properly because he remains the club’s best defender.

While names of defenders continue to crop up that the club is interested in, several of the club’s fans would just want the club to get it over and done with, as the matches begins to come thick and fast. It would point to a situation that the club seldom learns from the past. Two weeks in, no signing yet on the club’s present needs for a defender.