Arsenal “talks in progress” for Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves

Arsenal are reportedly closing in on Wolves’ midfielder Ruben Neves.

The 24-year-old has been on Arsenal’s summer transfer list alongside Sassuolo’s Manuel Locatelli and Brighton’s Yves Bissouma.

With Locatelli’s preference being Juventus, and the Gunners’ search for a ‘different type’ of player than Bissouma, Neves has come to the fore as their main midfield target.

According to journalist Nicolò Schira, the North London outfit have already offered a five-year contract to the Portuguese international.

Although talks are progressing, the deal is not at an advanced stage with personal terms and the final fee yet to be negotiated and agreed.

Neves has made 176 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers scoring an impressive 20 goals and recording a further 10 assists. The fact that he plays as a defensive midfielder makes those numbers even more admirable.

The 24-year-old has also made 22 appearances for the Portugal national team, since making his debut in 2015 as an 18-year-old.

With the acquisition of the former Porto captain, Arsenal can add a leadership head and a player who has a good reputation in the free-kicks department. The Gunners faithful can expect some bangers from outside the box too, because of his sweet right boot.

There has been a lot of negativity revolving around the Neves’ transfer links. In my opinion, he is not as bad a player as people are making it out to be. The Portuguese covers a lot of ground, has a good passing range and is more defensively astute than Granit Xhaka as well as Yves Bissouma, for which there has been a lot of clamour.

You can read more about the Bissouma-Neves tactical comparison here.

Although 40 million looks a tad more expensive, I won’t have any problems if Arsenal go for Neves instead of Bissouma, even though I like the Mali international more.

It is a well-known fact that Bissouma is a ‘dribbler-type’ midfielder unlike Xhaka and Neves. But his out of possession numbers, his medium and long-range passing is not better than Neves.

Technical director Edu certainly has to weigh what we can and cannot get with both the players. And I’ll say it again: although I want Arsenal to go for Bissouma, I won’t have any problems if we sign Neves.

Yash Bisht

Tags Ruben Neves Schira

10 Comments

  1. I think he will joining up with his old manager at spurs….small ‘s’ for a small club.

  2. OT: assuolo chief executive Giovanni Carnevali confirmed yesterday that they are in talks with an overseas club about the possibility of midfielder Manuel Locatelli sealing a summer exit.

    “We’re in talks for Locatelli with one club from abroad… and it’s really advanced. We’re going to meet with Juventus in the next days, but there are no negotiations yet with Juve as Italian clubs are in difficult financial situation.”

  3. OT
    Arsenal will be the next instalment of Amazon Prime Video’s popular sports doc franchise All Or Nothing.

    Filming will begin right away, offering fans a unique insight into how the 2021/22 season develops.

    As confirmed by Deadline, the series will launch exclusively on Prime in 2022.

    1. Yes I heard this today too. But please bear in mind that what you see will be highly edited and will bear little resemblance to what REALLY goes on behind the camera.

      Arsenal will certainly demand overall editorial control and so what we see we would all be advised to take with a large pinch of salt, IMO.

      In general, cameras are never allowed in the dressing room for a very good reason and all wiser fans know why. We will see an edited version of the truth, NOT the actual truth.

  4. I don’t think thisnis true. In my opinion this has been put out to put Sassuolo under pressure to decide. The club is meeting with Juve who are cash trapped. Everyone is playing a waiting game and using each other by saying things to the press. It’s all mind games waiting for the opportunity to strike and reduce some of the extra costs.

    Locatelli will fit into out team well with a diversity of formations including the 433, 4231, 343 etc. But I must confess this will be hard.

    I am also afraid Loxatelli might be another Torreira since there are no Italians around to help him out with social aspects of life in London. Let’s see how it does. My other worry is why are we not moving players as fast as we should?

  5. Bissouma should be our first target, if we dont get him we can go in for Neves. The AFCON is not of much issue as the African players will miss only one PL game and some Cup games. We have Willock, ESR, Lokonga and Aziz to fill in for them during AFCON. Also we can use players from the Academy for emergency situations, but Bissouma will give us the added impetus otherwise during the entire season.

    1. Agree GFL – I don’t think many fans are keen on Neves – perhaps because we see him as Xhaka reincarnated!
      The problem with Bissouma (as well as the price) is that like many top midfielders he’s African. Along with potentially Partey, Elneny , Pepe and Auba he will be off to the ANCON in January for 4-6 weeks.
      Man City, Spurs, Burnley and Wolves EPL games, FA Cup 3rd & 4th rounds and Carabou Cup Final are all missed. AFCON can ruin our season, especially in the midfield if whoever we bring in also goes. Lokongo is Belgian, so we have him, Azeez, perhaps AMN and Willock as our CM/DM.
      So as you see it’s quite a big deal.

  6. This could be another kante xhaka debacle! We should have bought Kante instead of xhaka. He we have bissouma it seems wanting to come, having arsenal garms in his room. He had a very strong season that’s why we have all enjoy the possibility that he might be an arsenal player next year pairing with partey in the middle and here we are going for Neves! Come Christmas we will see if Arteta and edu need to be removed from the club!

  7. Slow, can’t explode out of space between defenders, decent at defense, oh that is right we already have Xhaka…

    Geez who comes up with this stuff in the upper echelons at AFC….

    Dopes….

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