Unless you have been living in a box with no 3G or WIFI you’ll know that there has been a lot of talk about Sporting Lisbon star William Carvalho moving to Arsenal.
And now he has expressed his desire to play in England.
A report in the Daily Mail yesterday suggested that Wenger is looking to make a new £20m move for Carvalho after talks broke down in the summer and that Carvalho has enlisted “super agent” Jorge Mendes to try and broker a deal between the clubs.
Incidentally, does anyone know what the difference is between a super agent and a normal agent? Suggestions in the comments please.
According to the Mail, Carvalho had this to say when asked about his future:
“My dream is to play in England.
“I know some clubs are interested but my agent Jorge is looking after it and I am relaxed.
“Now my mission is to work in Sporting and they will be in charge of any transfer and my future. That is very important.”
In a lot of cases these are just rumours – but this one seems to have a bit of fire to the smoke – helped by the fact that Sporting have regularly said that they will sell Carvalho if the price is right.
With that in mind – I’ve read enough about this now to believe that Arsenal HAVE BEEN interested in Carvalho and HAVE BEEN keeping tabs on him.
What I’m not sure of, however, is whether Arsenal are still interested (there has been very little noise about this particular signing from ‘Arsenal sources’ or from Sporting) or if the potential signing of Krystian Bielik and the resurgence of Francis Coquelin have any impact on the defensive midfield side of things.
Arsene Wenger has made the normal noises about looking for good deals and the club being active in the market, but with players due to return from injury I get the feeling that Wenger will wait until the summer to make major additions (better value, more choice and more time to settle in).
Only an injury (like when Nacho Monreal was brought to the club in January instead of July due to Kieran Gibbs’ injury), an exceptional deal (due to something like an imminent contract expiry) or another club moving in for one of his summer targets is likely to force his hand.
Unless Sporting offer Carvalho at a summer rate, it’s unlikely that Arsenal will make a move before then.
I’d love to be wrong.