Arsenal have been strongly linked with the Portugal and Sporting Lisbon star before, when all the Arsenal transfer rumours or at least a large portion of them were focused on the search to finally find a deep lying central midfielder to fill the role that many think has been needed since the departure of Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva.
Howver, the emergence of the former Arsenal academy player Francis Coquelin when he was brought back from a loan spell with Charlton Athletic appeared to have solved the problem and the rumours linking us to William Carvalho faded away.
Now they are back, probably because Coquelin did not have the sort of season we expected and the arrival of Granit Xhaka in a big money move last summer does not seem to have given the Gunners the strength and control in midfield that a team needs if they want to challenge for the Premier League title.
With The Sun reporting Arsenal’s interest in signing Carvalho this summer along with his club colleague and young winger Gelsons Martins I wonder if Arsene Wenger has decided that Coquelin is not the player we need in the middle.
I do not think he is going to dump Xhaka after just one season so I reckon it could be the Frenchman whose time may be up if these reports are true. Carvalho is a strong and effective presence in the centre who is a regular and key starter for his club and country, so could be the man to finally fill the boots of the great Vieira?
Bob.