Arsenal think they can sign target for less than £10m, he wants PL move

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Benfica left-back Nuno Tavares is intrigued by a potential move to the Premier League with Arsenal confident of tying up a deal for less than £10 million before the summer is out, as reported by ESPN.

In an era when most clubs like to have at least two top-quality players for every position, the fact Mikel Arteta was forced to field Granit Xhaka out of position at left-back during Arsenal’s biggest game of the season spoke volumes about the standard of the club’s recruitment.

With Kieran Tierney unavailable and Sead Kolasinac loaned to Schalke, the Gunners didn’t have another left-sided defender in their ranks for that ill-fated trip to Spain.

In the end it was Xhaka who got the nod over Cedric Soares. Unfortunately the Euro 2020 hero was fried by an electrifying Samu Chukwueze as Arsenal crashed out of the Europa League to Unai Emery’s Villarreal.

But at least Arsenal have learned from their mistakes. It’s about time, too.

Desperate to avoid a repeat of that Villarreal debacle, Arteta and co are pushing hard to bring in some much-needed cover for the influential yet injury-prone Tierney.

And it seems they’ve found their man in the shape of 21-year-old Tavares.

Is Nuno Tavares on his way to Arsenal?

It was reported on Monday that Arsenal had agreed a five-year contract in principle with the Lisbon-based flyer, fighting off competition from Napoli and Southampton along the way.

ESPN backs up those claims adding that talks are under way with Tavares, who is keen to test himself in England after spending his entire football career in Portugal.

Benfica are demanding a fee in the region of £10 million, although Arsenal believe a deal can be done for less.

Tavares may not be a proven, Premier League performer like Ryan Bertrand or Patrick van Aanholt, the free agents who have also been linked with a move to the Emirates this summer.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

After all, Arsenal don’t have a great track record when it comes to signing 30-something veterans, with Willian, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Mathieu Debuchy and David Luiz enduring difficult spells in red and white.