Arsenal appear to have changed their mind yet again over the future of new signing Konstantinos Mavropanos.
The 20-year-old’s arrival was confirmed earlier this month following a shock £2million move from Greek side PAS Giannina.
Arsene Wenger confirmed it was his original intention was to send Mavropanos out on loan to the Bundesliga, but following several impressive performances in training the Frenchman revealed he would keep the centre-half until May and even named him on the bench for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea 10 days ago.
‘We will see [how he copes with that] in the games and I haven’t seen him play in England against an English team yet,’ said the Arsenal manager.
‘I have to see that. Personally, I am encouraged by what I’ve seen and I’ve decided to keep him until May.’
But in his programme notes ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace, club captain Per Mertesacker admitted the club were still considering sending the youngster out on loan to gain experience.
He said: ‘We’re already working together on extra sessions. I’m trying to be involved in those, offering my support and guiding him. At the moment we’re working hard together.
‘We need to work out what he will benefit more from – is it training with a competitive first team or is it getting playing time and going abroad again? That’s something we need to work out.’
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