Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal will ‘manage’ Riccardo Calafiori as the club’s fans await their first glimpse of the summer signing.
Arsenal completed the £42m signing of the centre-back from Bologna this week, with the Italian arriving as the Gunners’ second major signing of the summer after David Raya’s loan from Brentford was made permanent.
Calafiori impressed as Bologna upset the odds to secure Champions League qualification in Serie A last season, before breaking into the Italy side ahead of Euro 2024.
The 22-year-old’s involvement in that tournament means he will be given time to get up to speed at Arsenal, with Calafiori not included in the squad for the 2-1 friendly defeat to Liverpool in Philadelphia.
Arteta said the defender is yet to train with the North Londoners and said Calafiori will not be rushed into action in pre-season.
“We had to manage him. He had a very busy 48 hours before he took his flight and joined us here, and then it was the jetlag, it’s a lot of things,” Arteta said at his post-match press conference when asked why the recruit did not feature against Liverpool.
He hasn’t trained with the team yet and we want to build him up slowly to get to know him first. We’ll have plenty of time to see him.”
