AC Milan lining up move to sign Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior in January - just a year after arriving in north London

The gifted 23-year-old was acquired by the Gunners for £20 million from Spezia in January of last year, but he has only made intermittent appearances for the North London team thus far. This season, Kiwior has made ten appearances across all competitions; however, most of them have been cameos off the bench. Italian publication Calciomercato claims that AC Milan have been closely monitoring the defender for the past few weeks and are keen on bringing Kiwior back to Serie A. Due to multiple injuries, AC Milan are presently missing Simon Kjaer, Pierre Kalulu, Mattia Caldara, Malick Thiaw, and Marco Pellegrino in defence.

Calciomercato also reports that Antonio D'Ottavio, the sporting director of Milan, and Geoffrey Moncada, the technical director, have been "working intensely for a few days" to attempt to recruit him "on a loan deal with an option to buy." At the moment, Arsenal are hesitant to let Kiwior go, however, "discussions will continue" over a possible agreement over the upcoming weeks.

Kiwior's career peaked while playing for Spezia in Serie A, so perhaps a loan return to Italy can help him regain his form. In light of this, it will be intriguing to watch if AC Milan can entice the defender away from the Emirates during the next winter.

Arsenal have games coming up thick and fast and with the season-ending injury suffered by Jurrien Timber, Kiwior may well be in the running to start one of those games with the Champions League group stage game against PSV being one of the key opportunities considering the game is a dead rubber for both sides having secured their places in the next round.