Konstantinos Mavropanos remains unsure as to what the future will hold for him at Arsenal, with a door being left open for him to remain at Stuttgart as the Gunners wait on discussions with their Greek defender.
The 23-year-old has spent the 2020-21 campaign on loan in Germany, with a new contract signed at Emirates Stadium before making that move.
Arsenal were eager to ensure that they remain in full control of Mavropanos’ career path when sanctioning that switch, but are yet to outline their long-term plans for a promising centre-half.
What has been said?
Discussing his future with Bild, a man who recently made his senior international debut for Greece said: “I can’t say that at the moment (if I will return to Arsenal).
“Things can change quickly in football. I still have two months here in Stuttgart and would like to end the season with the team as high up as possible.
“The door at VfB is open for me [to stay another year] – that’s very good, but I can only think specifically about the future when we have talks with Arsenal for the new season.”
What has Mikel Arteta had to say?
Mavropanos was one of Arsene Wenger’s last signings as Arsenal boss, with a deal pushed through in January 2018.
Just eight appearances for the Gunners have been taken in since then, with the likes of David Luiz and Gabriel Magalhaes subsequently snapped up.
Mavropanos has been allowed to head out of north London as a result, along with fellow loan star William Saliba, but Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been eager to point out that two highly-rated defenders remain part of his thinking.
The Spaniard has said: “We’re having meetings very often to assess what they’re doing and obviously we’re getting all the information and watching their games because I want to keep a very close eye on what they’re doing.
“We were talking for example with Ben Knapper, who is our loan manager, who is in charge of monitoring everything we are doing, and we are in contact with the players. Let’s see.
“It’s good news that they are playing and it’s good news that they have the possibility to have a lot of minutes because that’s going to give us a much better perception of where they are and how we can use them.”