HSV Hamburg sporting director Claus Costa has explained how he turned into a deadline day Santa to secure two gifts from Arsenal in Fabio Vieira and Sambi Lokonga.
[BILD cover comments](https://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/sportdirektor-verraet-so-angelte-der-hsv-zwei-arsenal-stars-68b6e9b228ef4f2369ca978f) from him today after a busy deadline day saw him secure a double deal with Arsenal for the midfield duo.
Vieira was a last-minute arrival at the end of the window and was not the only one flying from London as Lokonga had also signed a few hours earlier.
The Portuguese midfielder was signed on a season-long loan deal while Lokonga, who once cost €17.5m to sign from Anderlecht, has joined for €300,000.
It was a double couple that has caused a stir in the Bundesliga and at Hamburg. That’s because both players were simply not on their radar at the beginning of the summer, as they were too expensive at that point.
They instead took advantage of Arsenal’s desire to move players on at the end of the window after a busy summer of incomings themselves.
And Costa has now detailed how they managed to pull it off, openly admitting the Arsenal duo were not players who had been on their list.
“It requires a lot of communication, a lot of patience, and, at times, strong nerves,” he said.
“Of course, you can’t let yourself get carried away too soon. In the end, good timing is important. We try to trust in our own strengths and convictions.
“They weren’t in our core target market. We still had them on our list. With Sambi, we could have assumed for a while that a door might open. With Fabio, we wouldn’t have had a chance at the beginning.
“Over the course of the transfer window, and especially in the last few days, it became more concrete that there might be a possibility. It became concrete shortly before the end, and we were able to strike.
“We threw everything into the mix that we could. It was very clear to the outside world what we intended to do with the players, how we could use them, and what our plan was. Accordingly, we hoped to get some points from them. We succeeded quite well in that.”