Arsenal and Nottingham Forest could be about to do a second bit of business this summer with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Nuno Tavares is wanted by Steve Cooper.
The Portuguese left-back is surplus to requirements at Emirates Stadium and could follow goalkeeper Matt Turner in signing a permanent deal at the City Ground.
Tavares, 23, spent last season on loan at Marseille and scored six goals in 39 appearances.
EXCL: Nottingham Forest submit formal proposal to sign Arsenal left back Nuno Tavares on permanent deal 🚨🌳🇵🇹
Forest trying top signing as new fullback as negotiations are still ongoing also on player side.
Deal on. pic.twitter.com/nfmoScIMIe
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 16, 2023
While the defender may have lost the trust of Mikel Arteta – so much so that even Jurrien Timber’s injury doesn’t affect the desire to sell – he’s not been short of suitors since he joined Arsenal from Benfica two years ago.
Atalanta have been linked in the past, and German sides Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg have sniffed around this summer.
After paying €7 million to sign Tavares, the Gunners are hoping to recoup that and more.
I have a feeling that Tavares could become a great player, but not in defence. Not for us at present, because we’re well stocked with players where he should be playing, a left-sided attacker. Does anyone remember how awful Gareth Bale was as a young left-back for the Spuds?
His decision making is a massive weakness, that’s going forward as well as defensively. I just can’t see him ever getting to be a ‘great player’.
Has your decision making improved since you were 22 years old? I sincerely hope so. So why wouldn’t Nuno’s?
You seem to say it like some thing that’s inherent and impossible to improve. In fact is there any attribute of a player that’s more likely to improve than decision making?
Ability to increase your Footballing decision making process has a much shorter timespan
Of course it’s possible. I just don’t see him having what it takes to be come a great player.
It’s hardly an outrageous comment given what we have seen from him in his career to date.
Ok
Not saying it’s outrageous, might very well not happen for him. Many defenders keep eboue’ing or mustafi’ing their whole careers. But if he decides or has decided to get serious and commit to becoming a more intelligent player I’m pretty sure the potential is there
Caveat before you read this: this is not a rhetorical question, I actually have no idea.
Is decision making in a football sense the same thing as making decisions in general, though?
I would have thought decision-making in football is a more instinctual thing, but maybe it’s based on subconscious knowledge built up over time (like human machine-learning).
Experience helps but intelligence is key here. Cesc never put a foot wrong even at 17 because he was naturally smart. How fast you become better at decision-making in football is also important. Top clubs will just move on to the next guy instead of developing you.
It’s exactly what you said, or like learning a language. First you have to think about everything, then the more you practice it the more those neural pathways become hard-wired so to speak and you basically make the decisions almost automatically (whilst still also being able to learn from mistakes and gradually improve the hard-wiring over time). You just have to invest time and effort and practice.
Obviously talent plays a role too, like anywhere in life. Some players just have a better aptitude for it, and maybe that’s also because those players love to learn that stuff whereas Nuno’s innate passion is rather to dribble and score goals. But everyone can improve significantly…
Sports scientist here at an elite football club (not round ball), albeit one giving an opinion based on discussions I’ve had, not on research. It is like any other attribute: there is the ability to improve, but natural faculty is incredibly important, as Ebo has said. It is likely that at 17, Cesc had better IQ than Nuno (and most others) will ever have, just like Nuno at 17 was probably a better runner Cesc ever was. There is therefore clearly more scope to improve mental attributes than physical, given most players are already at an elite level of fitness… Read more »
Thanks for the professional opinion confirming my non-professsional one. Interesting to have NFL team employees here in these threads! (if I understood your words correctly) 100% with you on your last point too, obviously Nuno will never have the on-field intelligence of Cesc or even Partey and maybe even full back is a bit too much responsibility for him, but to be a high quality wing back or winger he doesn’t need to be Einstein. He’ll need opportunity, some stability and patience from his coaches and to be fully committed… anyway it won’t mean much for Arsenal anymore in this… Read more »
he is a year and half older than gabriel martinelli. as of now martinelli makes a better left back than him.
I can’t see him being a really top player but maybe he could be someone like Adama Traore. A dangerous player and reasonably effective but too erratic to play for a big club
Poor decision making didn’t stop The Walcott having a good career.
Bale wasn’t bad. Tottenham were/are/always will be. Tavares is one of a small pool of players where I have heard entire sections of the crowd desperately screaming/pleading at the bench to get him off because of how erratic he’s been playing. Sell for 10 and move on.
Garerh Bale is massively technical and this is not the case with Nuno. You can compare Nuno with Clichy who became a better, experienced and reliable player for Man City.
Tavares is one heck of an athlete. I think it’s worth persisting with him just for that. His running power, consecutive sprints the length of the pitch and delivering (relative) quality at the end of it – makes Serge Aurrier look weak and slow.
Keep him just in case we ever revert to wing backs!
Sell for 10-15 and insert a cheeky sell-on. Feel like he’ll make a decent move to France in the next few years, he has all the ingredients to be a good player.
Yeah, that would be ideal. Probably can’t get a massive deal at this point, so getting a few quid if he moves on to a higher level would be nice.
I think we could get 10-15 only from another big club with a lot of money and coaching resources and a few seasons to further develop the player. Clubs like Forest, at that price, are looking for dependable and uncomplicated squad players who are ready to come in and do a job.
If Forest are going to continue playing wing-backs, I think this a good move all round.
One of the reasons I thought he might get a move to Italy when he was doing well at the start of last season was because a few of the top teams play that way.
Maybe with a bit more experience he can improve the defensive side of his game enough that he’ll be able to play fullback at a higher level.
Anything less than 15 million and we foolish. He definitely has the attributes to play as a left winger and he knows where the goal is, based on last year. Feel he has a bit of the Sambi Lokonga’s about him. Good on the ball, pretty quick, but lacks concentration and positional sense. Lets show that we’re not easy to rip off. Remember Spurs bought a right back from Middlesbrough, Djed Spence for 20 million after 1 good season for Forest in the championship. So that could be used as a reasoning tool.
In a week Forest will come back with a loan offer. I don’t believe anybody wants to give us any real money for our players.
forget the bench, he did not even make the yearly photoshoot for the official arsenal website, Likewise Lokonga, Pepe, Marquinos, and Balogun.
Apart from Balogun, we will struggle to achieve permanent sales for any real money for these players.
Not sure I’d put Marquinhos in that bracket. The guy is super young- he just looks older. And I actually thought he put on a decent showing last season- in the EL at least. No need to rule him out yet.
We really should remember that when Marquinos arrived, it was clear that he was “one for the future.”
Not ideal but much better than Barcelona offering us monopoly money for Aubameyang and selling him 15 M four months later.
At this stage of the season I fear clubs are probing to see if they can get our players the same way. They will offer 15 M for Flo because they know he wants out but will offer 70 M for a guy at Atalanta who couldn’t get a game ahead of Duvan Zapata because they know he wants out but it’s not Arsenal
It’s surprising how slow the club has been in getting rid of the dross. We still have so many players who need to be moved on.
The clue is the word dross. 😉
There has to actually be interested parties making offers to offload players. Can’t just bin them all off in a matter of days
Our HR department is quite weak in getting rid of unwanted players. It is all about connections, create hype thru friendly journalists, leak stories when negotiating with one club etc. – just look at the way Chelski do their job done in getting 60Mn + for absolute wankers.
Yeah – they are just sitting a round waiting for someone else to do something! It is not like selling someone requires a buyer! You can probably list the players the club intended to sell at the beginning of the window, but they just can’t be bothered….
I’d drive him up there in my black cab, no fee to the club.
Hand, grab, off, their…….make the appropriate sentence.
In this sick and rotten market nearly only PL clubs and oil countries can buy these players.