Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta confirms he’s been targeting Jorginho ‘for many years’ while Graham Potter believes the Italy international’s transfer is a ‘win-win.’

The former Napoli and Hellas Verona midfielder moved to the Emirates Stadium on the deadline day for €13.5m including add-ons.

Arteta is a long-time admirer of the Italy international and explained his signature at a press conference on Friday. Arteta admitted targeting Jorginho “Many years ago” and added: “His intelligence, his personality, his leadership skill and the way he understands our way of playing and the quality he has to implement that in football matches. He’s a player that will fit in really well with what we want to do.”

Jorginho’s contract with the Blues expired in June and talks over a new deal had led nowhere, so the Premier League giants decided to sell to avoid seeing him leave as a free agent in June.

“For the first four months working with him, he has been fantastic. He is a great person,” Chelsea coach Potter said on Thursday as quoted by Nizaar Kinsella. “It was a win-win-win with his contract situation.”

Jorginho joined Chelsea in a €57m deal from Napoli in 2018, joining Maurizio Sarri who had also joined from the Azzurri.

He won Europa League and Champions League while at Stamford Bridge, scoring  29 goals in 213 appearances with the Blues.

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