As per the official website, Arsenal have ‘recalled’ Marquinhos from his loan spell with Nantes, although reports in the French press suggest this was far more a decision taken by the Ligue 1 side due to their unhappiness with the player and issues regarding his availability.
The 20-year-old winger returns to Arsenal ahead of Brazil’s participation in the 2024 CONMENBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament which starts on 20 January.
The player, who has already missed a chunk of the domestic season playing for Brazil’s under-20s at the Pan American Games, is expected to be loaned out to another club (probably one that plays in yellow and green) in the second half of the season having struggled for game time at the Stade de la Beaujoire.
149 minutes of action across seven appearances is little to shout about and comes off the back of a disappointing six months at Norwich City during the last campaign.
A punt of a signing by Edu, Marquinhos looks like he has his work cut out if he’s to save his Arsenal career, 18 months after joining from Sao Paulo.
Who knows, perhaps he’ll follow in the path of Serge Gnabry and use next summer’s Olympics as a platform for bigger and better things.
Will be gone in the summer
I think the better Q would be will Edu be held accountable for yet another failure? How is his & other relevant team members performance measured? What KPI etc?
Naaa,if he’s still good enough for Brazil’s U-23 at that age we need to be patient…extend his contract and send him to another league where he’s sure to get minutes…we should be able at least to make a profit on him ….I’m assuming that was the idea behind extending Reis’s Nelson’s deal….
For every Martinelli there are quite a few Marquinhos, not a bad low cost high reward strategy. Hopefully he can pick up some form or be sold on for a tidy profit
WhyTF are we bringing in a Brazilian centerback when we need a fucking forward!? Sure he’s got a lot of experience, but is he better than Gabriel and Saliba? No…
I’ve hooked 9 sucker fish so far!
Edu signed him after a late night BBQ thinking he was the PSG defender. He couldn’t not sign him at that price!
On the basis of his 149 minutes action I’m sure he could have a 5 minute youtube clip of him looking awesome..
Does anyone know FIFA’s rules about the Olympics for men’s football? Are clubs required to release players as they are for senior international matches in designated periods? Are they required to release those senior players (three per side? four?) that a country is permitted to name to its Olympic squad? (Neymar, for example, won with Brazil, though presumably he would have been able to insist on going, regardless of whether his club was required to release him or not.)
Mbappé playing for France at the Olympics is left to him to decide. It was never about PSG having to release him.
Ok, you’re saying FIFA does not require a club to release senior players. But what about players who are young enough for the Olympics (outside the limited number of seniors)? In other words, are there requirements concerning Marquinos?
LANS
On the face of it – low transfer fee and wages but still another player taking up valuable resources and preventing Arsenal moving forward.
By all accounts during his time at Nantes spent a considerable amount of time with the Brazil under 21’s then came back to Nantes and played a few underwhelming games then insisted on joining the Brazilian under 21’s once again.
Not a great attitude in my opinion…
I really can’t disagree with this more. We’ve made three 2-10m signing in recent years and had 1 superstar (Martinelli), 1 first team player who made a transfer profit (Guendouzi) and 1 failure (Marquinhos, as it stands) You have to risk a Marquinhos to find a Martinelli, and I hope we try many more time.
Marquinhos cost us £3m, currently valued at around £7m on transfermarkt. The fact he’s very much involved in Brazil youth teams suggests he’s rated and is worth giving time to – a feeling shared by a good championship club and a Ligue 1 club in his first two loans. Neither move worked out, but their willingness to take him on loan suggests he’s got the talent and character to play at a high level – he’s still a kid (who has moved to a new continent, new language, new style of play), so it’s probably a bit early to label… Read more »
Yeah, I tend to agree, we shoved Wolves out of the way to get him when they almost had him over the line and he has a contract up till 2027 I believe so ‘a bit early to label him a failure’ as it stands, sounds sensible to me.
How many Pépé can you afford to get a Declan Rice?
Mavropanos was 5m? Took several years for him to become a starter for West Ham.
To be fair we didn’t really develop him. It was more a loan spell playing regular football.
Which we hoped he would do.
It’s hard for loan players to get minutes and be successful like Bellerin, Guendouzi, Mari or ESR. And those who just loaned to wrong club like Gnabry (Stoke/Pulis) or Tavares (Forest)
I think, this is case of player getting home sick. He would progress well in Portuguese League IMO
The duddiest of duds.
But, he touched my heart after scoring that goal.
Good luck in the future, M.
Runarrson would like a word.
Please 🙏 can we get Dusan Vlahovic
I am ready to contribute to get Dusan Vlahovic
desperate times eh