Bacary Sagna has praised Arsenal target, Achraf Hakimi, for his development since he broke through at Real Madrid.
Hakimi is now one of the top targets for Arsenal to replace Hector Bellerin if the Spaniard leaves the Emirates.
Bellerin has been at Arsenal since 2011 and he is a part of the leadership group at the club.
However, it looks increasingly likely that the Gunners will cash in on him in the summer.
If that happens, they are expected to bring in a replacement that would be better than the likes of Cedric Soares and Calum Chambers.
Hakimi has been identified as the ideal signing if Arsenal wants an upgrade on Bellerin and Sagna has added his voice to a growing list of admirers that the Moroccan has.
The former Arsenal full-back says he watched Hakimi breakthrough at Real Madrid, but he didn’t expect him to become as good as he has become now.
Speaking to Goal.com, Sagna said: “Hakimi is never tired, he’s always going forward. He’s so fast.
“I was surprised when I saw him playing for Madrid because for me he was not that good. You could see the potential, but I never expected him to do as well as he is doing now.”
Am I the only one who is surprised by Arteta’s recruitment ambitions? First, where will the money come from since we’ve been told of losses. I hear this everyday players from all around the world to be recruited. If at we can get them what are we gonna do with those we have at the club?
But we always sight these talents for our opponents because we take long to make transfers happen and our opponents take that advantage to buy the best players away from us.
And this might even be a player who will come and destroy us, i will be happy when the deal goes through but subject to support from our bosses.
Of course he would be a great addition and a considerable upgrade on our current lot…he’s both younger and faster than Bellerin, plus he seems to have found his scoring boots at Inter…problem is he just signed a 5-year deal in Milan last summer…it appears as if they paid upwards of 40m to Real Madrid for his services, which means he’s likely out of our price range, unless we get more than I’m anticipating for Hector…if this transfer fee is correct, which it appears to be, it worries me a bit about what Real would want for Ode