Nuno Tavares may not have set the world alight in his debut season at Arsenal but that hasn’t deterred a number of clubs on the continent from registering their interest in the Portugal under-21 international, says transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano.
After a couple of failed bids for Ajax’s versatile Argentine Lisandro Martinez, it’s no secret that the Gunners want to recruit stiffer competition for Kieran Tierney at left-back. There were early summer links with Aaron Hickey – the Scotland international has since left Bologna for Brentford – and in the last week links with Benfica’s Alex Grimaldo have come to the fore.
While Romano played down the Grimaldo speculation, he hinted that the Gunners won’t have an issue finding a new home for Tavares should they first recruit a replacement.
“Arsenal now have different priorities,” Romano told the Que Golazo Podcast when asked about a bid for Grimaldo.
“Tavares has many proposals. Spanish clubs, French clubs and Italian clubs are all interested in him, but at the moment, Arsenal are not accepting any bid for Tavares.
“So, let’s see. I saw these rumours, but at the moment, I’m told it’s not something like close or imminent.”
L’Equipe claim Marseille are the French club most serious about signing Tavares with a loan deal more likely in the short term.
Signed for £7 million last summer, the Gunners clearly believe there’s a healthy profit to be made on Tavares, a player who showed promise at times last season but is clearly a rough diamond.
Keep him, work on certain things pre season, play him when needed without concern, develop him, good player in the making in my view
Agreed, the more we play him the better he will get. His value will only increase.
Really? Do we have to be here again in a year’s time – having blown top four and been knocked out of the FA Cup by a lowers league team – for you to finally acknowledge that he isn’t good enough….? This year is the most important season in Arsenal’s history for a very long time. If we are to keep Saka, Martinelli, ESR, Odegaard, Gabriel and, probably, Saliba, then we need to qualify for the ECL – no question about it. We simply cannot afford the kind of mistakes that the likes of this lad and Cedric have displayed… Read more »
If we can upgrade him I don’t see the downside of loaning him as long as he goes to a well coached team. He’s got plenty of time left on his contract, his wages will be covered by another club and he’ll play and get experience, this increasing his value. I don’t see the upside of selling him now unless we really need the cash.
As long as he doesn’t play for us next season, I’m happy.
Yes. If we have a player that others actually want, we don’t really need and that we might well make a profit on, heaven forfend that we’d sell him.
Just maybe the reason why we always seem to lose out on sales is that we tend to hang on to our surplus players until everyone else has lost interest as well…(!)
I like him, but if he’s just here to tie up a squad place we need to get shot of him while there’s value to be had.
For those who detect the slightest criticism of Arteta and vote down, here is one. Arteta compounded his problems by pulling him out at the wrong time in successive games.
That’s rubbish.
I was as critical of Arteta at the start of last season as anyone – perhaps more than most.
But the manager was right to take the player off in both games – he was stinking the place out on both occasions.
Trust me, if Arteta doesn’t bring in fullback cover replacements, persists with this player and Cedric and they become the direct cause for unnecessary soft goals conceded and unnecessarily dropped points, the pitchfork will be well and truly on it’s way to making a reluctant comeback.
Our failure to make top 4 was more to do with our attack than the defence.
We have sorted – and are still working on – the attack; so, I expect a top 4 finish next season.
Chelsea’s defence makes them vulnerable, by my reckoning.
Rudiger, Christensen and, maybe, Alonso will be difficult to replace in the short run.
Their attack too looks suspect.
Check out our final goals for/goals against and you’ll see it was more or less a 50/50. Both our attack and defence were to blame.
Laca has now gone – Oh Happy Day. Jesus has come – Hallelujah. And now we need to get rid of the jokers at the back. Cedric and his mate.
As for Chelsea, who gives a shit? I’m concerned about our defensive issues – fuck them and theirs.
Totally. A loan seems like a great idea. You can’t expect a £7m youngster to be fully sculpted. There’s no point in buying one if that’s what you want. And we’ve seen enough to feel confident that there’s a great deal of potential there.
I think really it’s this simple:
The skills Tavares lacks you can teach. The skills he has you can’t.
Sorry mate, I think it’s really this simple – he’s not good enough.
It happens.
Jeff Blockley wasn’t good enough. Gus Caesar wasn’t good enough. Stepanovs wasn’t good enough. Eboue wasn’t good enough.
And Cedric and Tavares aren’t good enough either.
Terry Mancini was good enough ! He wrote the Pink Panther theme on a Wednesday night at Newcastle pausing only to dominate Supermac ?
Haha. This did made me chuckle. Two thumbs up for a great bit of 70’s nostalgia.
👍👍
Terry Mancini. In his book ‘Fever Pitch’ Nick Hornby said that he (or a mate) scratched off some of the ‘hair’ paint on one of their Arsenal Subbuteo players, in order to give ‘Terry Mancini that realistic look’…..!! 😂
”Work on certain things” …..like how to defend properly?
As a full back, to stop showing your forward inside all the time? To hold a defensive line with your fellow defenders properly? Mate, he should have had that all under his belt at youth level.
The guy is now 22 and yet bombs around with no positional responsibility like a kid in a playground and wonders why he gets substituted.
He’s not good enough, he’s a liability and we need to replace him ASAP.
sell him he is too raw by the time he is up to speed he will have one year left on his contract sold for a loss or go later on a free whiuch is aniche we need to get out of
This boy has talent. I don’t really understand why so many are down on him.
If we are chasing a game then putting him on at left back is our best attacking option, in my opinion!!
😂
🎂
I’m sorry, he’s a bang average wing back and a downright fucking awful fullback; the lad is not at the required standard for this club. He was clearly out of his depth last season, evidenced in our FA Cup defeat at Forest (where he sulked with the attitude of world class primadonna) and the away disaster at Palace where he didn’t make the second half for either game, having started both. In Tierney’s absence he proved to be completely devoid of any level headedness and his propensity for rash decisions meant we were living on our nerves every time he… Read more »
I respect your opinion Q and do understand your conclusion. But I feel personally that the fanbase often creates a sort of self fulfilling prophecy about players. And by that I mean that we highlight and decry every single mistake because we think he is going to be prone to making mistakes. I don’t remember a hell of a lot he did wrong. I remember a Liverpool goal at Anfield and the Palace performance was poor. And as regards his attitude, I think many would have been crushed by a 30 min substitution whereas Tavares seemed to handle it ok.… Read more »
Every player that comes in is a gamble isn’t he Johnny 4, Saliba was a gamble when we bought him and now with expectation so high his debut if selected ahead of someone else who is established would also be a gamble. KT came on for Nuno against Forest and they scored the winner down his flank, Chelsea at home last season KT was caught completely out of position for one goal and the other also came from his side of defence, but we like KT so we give him the benefit. I thought Gabriel was equally to blame for… Read more »
Sorry FingersFurnell, those aren’t valid comparisons. You are talking about good players making bad mistakes or having bad games. At no point have any of those players had games where they looked so out of their depth at the top level from start to finish that it was hard not to worry how on earth he ended up there. That was the case with Tavares on multiple occasions.
As I’ve stated elsewhere, as long as he doesn’t run out for the Arsenal first team – AT ALL – then I’m happy.
I’d phrase it a little kinder than that!
But yeah, I’m inclined to agree. I think a year away might do him good and ease the pressure that has built around him a little.
Wenger used to say a 100 games….90-120 really. Some get there sooner than others. I’d give majority of young players that before writing them off.
Some players though, are just hopeless. For example, I watch Manure just to laugh at Wan Bissaka, and stir the pot.
I’m afraid we’ve currently got two of the ‘hopeless’ variety ourselves. The trouble with this club is that it takes four or five years of shit – not one or two – for the inevitable penny to finally drop about a certain player. Look at Mustafi. That clown cost us untold misery, dropped points, league cup exits and missed ECL places with his “Oh no ! Hey! It wasn’t me, it was him” antics. He joined us, we duly dropped out of the ECL and we haven’t been back since. In the meantime, we had to put up with him… Read more »
I think you’re right when you say he’s an average wingback. But I think at fullback he’s not terrible, just below average.
And that’s the thing, if you can be average at 21, you have potential to be elite at 25.
He’s 22 already and you said below average so he wasn’t even average at 21. He’s an absolute liability.
Mate – the elite are elite at the age of 10. You’ve either got it or you haven’t when it comes to worldies.
Tavares hasn’t got enough to be an average Premiership fullback.
Why jeopardise this team’s chances of top four? We can do better than him – we must do better than him.
I think Arteta needs to show his coaching credentials with a player like Tavares. So far under Arteta a lot of our improvement has come from upgrading the squad. It’s easy to look at players and simply say they’re not good enough, let’s move them on and buy someone better. But I think Tavares has potential and is still young. I think selling him would be the easy option for Arteta and I would personally like to see us keep a player with the physical attributes he possesses. This isn’t to be completely critical of Arteta btw, think he has… Read more »
Well, I disagree here. Smith Rowe and Gabi Martinelli have improved during Arteta’s time. While I agree that these players were already on the way up, I think credit must also be given to Arteta the coach. Not to mention, during his time at Man City, many players credited Arteta for their improvement (like Sane, Sterling, etc)
Tbf I appreciate i might be being sa bit harsh on Arteta here but I guess I do see all those players you mentioned as top young talents, who would’ve thrived at most clubs as you alluded to. What I mean is it would be good to see him improve a player like Tavares whose career could go either way at this point!
Unrelated but is it time to start worrying about Saka yet? Everybody said one of the main parts of the summer was to extend his contract with only 2 years left on it…just hope it doesn’t drag to 1 year. It can deter peoples performance if it drags on 😞
Now is not the time to worry – Saka is happy and ready for the new season.
If, however, we don’t make top four this season, then you are more than welcome in my book to worry like hell, because he clearly won’t want to sign a new deal for a club that can’t learn from its mistakes.
Which brings me nicely back to the reasons why we have to get rid of Tavares and Cedric.
They are both accidents waiting to happen – and precious Premiership points are at stake here.
No. Sounds like you are looking for things to worry about. Give yourself a break.
I support Arsenal, is there ever such thing as a break 😜
Keep him, keep him, keep him.
Attacking-wise, he is very influential. However, if an irresistible offer arrives, GRAB IT.
If any offer arrives, grab it.
Potential for a loan deal, plus refusal to buy?
Seriously stop dealing with Marseille. They are a bunch of wankers. And I don’t think it is ideal to even have Douzi the prick anywhere near our players.
Keep Tavares: there is a great player in there. Although he reminds me of Armand Troure, I feel he will definitely get better – might even show remarkable improvement if he has regular game time in EL group stage and the cups.
Nice lad but if we have the opportunity to turn a healthy profit before the rest of the footballing world catches up to what we’ve seen from him, we have to take it.
I suspect that a lot of people think I’m being harsh on him – “He’s a nice lad.”
Well, I’m sure he is a nice lad. The first one in the queue to help any little old lady across Blackstock road on her way to The Arsenal Fish Bar.
I haven’t a problem with our lads being nice guys. I like the fact that they’re respectful, professional and aren’t egotistical wankers like that lot up the Seven Sisters road.
Saka is a nice guy. But he also knows what he’s doing on the pitch.
Big difference. 😉
This is it.
I work with a really nice guy. Would love to have him live next door.
But as a colleague he is ineffective and as such the rest of the department has to work a bit harder to compensate.
Modest profit with a sell on fee would be fine