According to reports in Brazil, Fluminense are in negotiations with Arsenal over a loan deal for Marquinhos that could include a purchase option at the end of the season.
The 20-year-old winger was recalled from a loan move at French side Nantes earlier this month and immediately travelled to Venezuela for the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament where he’s representing his country’s under-23s.
When he spoke to the local press ahead of the competition, he seemed to think that he’d spend the second half of the campaign at Arsenal but it seems we may have other ideas.
The Gunners signed Marquinhos from Sao Paulo in the summer of 2022 and he made a quick impact, scoring and assisting on his debut in the Europa League.
While he was signed as ‘one for the future’, it’s been a case of out of sight, out of mind in the last 12 months.
Prior to his arrangement with Nantes, he spent a similarly underwhelming few months with Championship side Norwich.
Given he harbours ambitions of playing at the Paris Olympics – a tournament that would rule him out of a large chunk of pre-season training – it’s probably best he gets some game time in familiar climes.
We’re not clear on whether a deal needs to get done by tomorrow night or not, but it’s worth noting that the transfer window in Brazil doesn’t close until 7 March.
Marquinhos is next due in action on 5 February when Brazil start the second group stage of the Pre-Olympic tournament. Only two of the four sides left will qualify for Paris 2024.
For every Martinelli, there’s at least a couple of Marquinhos’
People will be negative but this is absolutely fine. We took a cheap punt on a player, had somebody else (Nantes and Norwich) pay his wages most of the time he was here, now we’ll get even the small fee we paid subsidised if the purchase option is picked up.
City do 2-3 deals like this every year because if even one pays off (Zinchenko, Oscar Bobb etc) the upside is massive for basically no risk. Add Marquinhos’ fee onto Martinelli’s if it helps you visualise why this wasn’t a bad deal.
The sort of deal we should be doing a lot more! And paying off doesn’t necessarily means a first team for us, but if a signing like that reaches a mid table team’s level we are already talking about a big profit