by Lewis Ambrose

Rewind to February and you probably had a miserable evening watching AS Monaco win at the Emirates Stadium.

I certainly did.

In the middle of the park that night Geoffrey Kondogbia – now of Internazionale – received widespread acclaim but the true star was his midfield partner. Former Porto man Joao Moutinho is a classy midfielder, not dissimilar to current Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta.

The Portuguese played in 37 Ligue 1 and 10 Champions League games last season but according to radio station RTP back in his homeland he could be on the move this summer. The midfielder has three years remaining on his Monaco contract but could be allowed to leave with Arsenal and Chelsea allegedly interested in bringing him to England.

He could also be wanted by former club FC Porto or former manager Andre Villas-Boas, who is now at Zenit St. Petersburg and tried to sign the midfielder while in charge of Tottenham.

Agent

A sticking point would be his agent. The 28 year-old midfielder is represented by Jorge Mendes, who Wenger seems unwilling to deal with. Mendes does a lot of deals all around Europe and also represents Jose Mourinho.

Considering the number of players that Mendes has some sort of interest in it is unlikely to be a coincidence that Arsenal have never signed one of his clients. The agent is manipulative and incredibly influential all over Europe and it appears to make Arsenal reluctant to do any deal with the agent.