Andrea Berta wows Arsenal colleagues as complex details of Piero Hincapie and Jakub Kiwior deals emerge
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Credit: Getty Images / Manh Tung - Breaking Media / Imago
Ben Palmer
Tue 2 September 2025 16:03, UK
Andrea Berta has impressed his Arsenal colleagues after engineering two smart loan deals for Piero Hincapie and Jakub Kiwior.
The Italian sporting director moved to the Emirates at the end of March 2025 following a 12-year stint in a similar role with Atletico Madrid.
The Gunners finished 10 points shy of Liverpool last season, and Berta’s first and only task this summer has been to oversee the construction of a squad capable of closing that gap.
Viktor Gyokeres was signed from Sporting CP in the North London side’s blockbuster move of the summer, while Eberechi Eze arrived at Arsenal in a similarly captivating transfer.
However, several less headline-grabbing moves happened throughout the window, and one of those was Arsenal’s signing of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen on deadline day.
But that deal would not have been able to be done without some smart negotiation from Berta and his team, according to The Athletic.
Credit: Imago
As reported, Berta’s “ingenuity” has impressed his Arsenal colleagues, after negotiating unique deals for Kiwior’s exit and Hincapie’s arrival.
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The Ecuadorian international could only arrive if the Poland international left, and Bayer Leverkusen were uninterested in taking the Gunners’ centre-back as part of a deal.
Having already committed £250million [transfermarkt] to transfers this summer, “cash flow and financial regulations” were an issue to contend with, and Arsenal wanted to avoid “paying out another €52million (£45m) for Hincapie in the same accounting period.”
Credit: Imago
Berta’s workaround was to make both loan deals temporary with a buy option, as an obligation would have caused the same issue as a standard transfer by registering the fee within the current period.
However, as it stands either Arsenal or Leverkusen can trigger Hincapie’s permanent option, and the same applies for the Gunners and Porto with Kiwior’s deal, to avoid the lack of security that a traditional option would create where a club may change their minds.
This means that the fees will only appear on next season’s accounting books, and the only way a permanent deal happens is “in the unlikely event neither club wants it”.
Football Insider Verdict
Aside from Mikel Arteta, there was probably not a single soul on the planet who looked at Arsenal’s squad this summer and decided that the thing that was missing was a centre-back/full-back hybrid.
Hincapie is a good player; he’s particularly strong attacking set pieces, and he’s almost certainly an upgrade on Kiwior.
But the decision to target a player who is going to be a third or fourth-choice centre-back over a left-winger or another option up top is puzzling.
Credit: Hasan Karim – Breaking Media
Kai Havertz’s injury has left Gyokeres as the only fit centre-forward at the club, making the possibility of Mikel Merino reprising his role as a makeshift number nine a real possibility this season.
And whilst Eze will likely feature on the left, the England international thrives down the middle and there probably should have been more of a focus on signing an out-and-out winger.