With personal conditions negotiated and a bid submitted to Bologna, Ricardo Calafiori is ready to become Arsenal’s second acquisition of the summer after David Raya. Before his move, Raya, who impressed on a season-long loan with his superior goalkeeping, signed permanently from Brentford for £27 million last week.
Most Arsenal fans believe Calafiori will be a success at the Emirates Stadium; he is developing into a reliable left back and left central defender. Even so, whenever Arsenal appears to be about to sign a player, the entire world predicts how poor the signing will be. On the internet, Arsenal critics have highlighted Calafiori’s injury cases as a concern.
…Injuries..Games missed
23/24 1 2
22/23 4 16
21/22 4 20
20/21 4 33
However, based on the data above (courtesy of Transfermarkt), it is unreasonable to classify the Italian as injury-prone, as he has only missed two games since the beginning of 2023/24, due to a knock. He was instrumental in Bologna’s resurgence last season, helping them finish fifth in Serie A and qualify for their first Champions League appearance in 60 years.
His injury record clearly isn’t that bad, and none of those injuries are catastrophic, save for the horrific one he suffered in 2019, when he was just 17 years old, but has certainly improved his fitness since he has grown into the team.
However, as with Raya, Havertz, Rice, Trossard, Jorginho, White, and Ramsdale before Calafiori, Arsenal’s detractors raised concerns about their swoops, but they ultimately proved to be unfounded. When will they learn? Mikel Arteta and Edu have made questionable transfer moves, and even so, they’ve also proven they have an eye for talent, which Califiori has proven he has it in spades.
Daniel O
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Your interpretation of the data you presented is different to mine.
What I see is that, apart from last season, this guy has had 4 injuries per season which have meant 16 – 33 games missed each season.
To me, that’s a problem.
How many games does a club like Bologna play each season? Well, it seems they have not played in Europe for the last 5 seasons. Their domestic cup games were 4 last season and 1 for each of the 4 seasons before that.
So basically, almost all of those games he missed were domestic league games (38 per season), which adds up to a long time on the sidelines.
As I said – that record is a problem.
For me, his injuries were while he was a developing teenager. Hopefully thos years are now behing him.
Well, the info in the article shows that he was 17 in 2019, so through the years mentions he was roughly 19 or 20 though to 22 or 23.
There are lots of players that age with no injury problems.
I imagine the people responsible at Arsenal have looked into these injuries and satisfied themselves that he should be ok going forward, but then… there was Tierney, who was bought when injured and just kept on with more of the same.
But all any fans can go on is the numbers and my problem was with the author’s interpretation of the numbers he presented. They should be cause for concern, not the opposite (as he suggested).
Let’s hope he is not as fragile as the unfortunate KT.