Recent reports suggest that Nuno Tavares, currently playing for Olympique Marseille on loan from Arsenal, may not have a future in North London.
Nuno Tavares joined Arsenal from SL Benfica for 8 million euros. Ever since, he has struggled to adapt to the style of play Mikel Arteta is after in the Premier League. In the 28 games he played for Arsenal, Tavares scored once & only assisted once last season.
While it isn’t necessarily important for a defender to be scoring/assisting in the league, it tells you how much he was struggling considering the impact the Arsenal fullbacks have on games this season. Although things seemed to have taken a turn for the better during his first loan spell at Marseille.
Nuno Tavares for Arsenal last season. [Image Credit: Getty Images]
He made a total of 24 appearances in Ligue One this season and scored 6 goals. He has been a starter for the most of his time there. However, according to La Provence, Marseille are not interested in signing the player on a permanent deal.
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He is currently the second highest scorer in the team only behind Alexis Sanchez. But despite this, Marseille have no intentions to retian the Arsenal loanee, unless there is a major change in plan.
It is very likely that Tavares will make a return to Arsenal in the summer, but whether he makes it back into the first-team squad remains to be seen. The squad is currently fairly set within the full back positions.
Arsenal have Zinchenko and Tierney acting as their Left backs, with Tomiyasu taking that position on certain occasions. With this much depth and quality, it is highly unlikely that Nuno Tavares makes it back into Arsenal’s team.
Considering Arsenal only spent £8million on the Portuguese left back, the club could make a big profit on the player if he is to be sold before the beginning of next season. Either way, it looks to be another good bit of business from Arsenal as Nuno Tavares has had a very successful loan spell in France.
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