Marseille are now closing in on the signing of Quentin Merlin from Nantes, seemingly ending their pursuit of Arsenal’s Nuno Tavares.

Arsenal and Marseille have been in talks over the permanent transfer of Nuno Tavares in recent days, but it seems the Ligue 1 club are now set to complete a deal for an alternative left-back signing.

Sebastien Denis of FootMercato reports that Quentin Merlin will join Marseille from Nantes, after the two clubs finally reached an agreement.

Merlin has had an agreement on personal terms in place for several days, but the deal had appeared to stall over club-to-club terms.

That’s no longer the case, and Merlin is set to travel to Marseille today to undergo a medical ahead of a €12m (£10.2m) move.

When it looked like the Merlin deal might not go through, Marseille briefly turned to Arsenal’s Tavares as an alternative.

Charles Watts reported earlier this week that the two clubs were in talks over a move, and it was only loan club Nottingham Forest getting in the way.

Arsenal don’t have a recall clause in Tavares’ contract, and Forest weren’t keen to let the player go, complicating the situation.

RMC Sport reported earlier this week that Tavares himself was keen to return to Marseille, following his loan spell with the club last season.

The delays from Forest’s end seem to have killed the deal, with Marseille able to finalise their move for Merlin instead.

Up until a few weeks ago, you would’ve thought that Forest would be happy to let Tavares go.

The defender didn’t even make it into their squad for a month and a half, despite being fit to play.

But Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment has changed that, and the Arsenal loanee played 90 minutes of a Premier League fixture against Brentford over the weekend.