He was one of the many central midfielders linked with a potential move to join Arsenal last summer, when we were all crying out for a player to finally come in and replace the great Patrick Vieira. Others like Lars Bender, Morgan Schneiderlin and Sami Khedira were linked but were not really available, while Carvalho was priced way too high.
So Arsenal fans were left frustrated again but looking at the way young Francis Coquelin has blossomed into his defensive midfield role since the boss prematurely recalled him from a loan spell, perhaps we should just be glad that Wenger did not just sign any old player.
But even with our young Frenchman doing so well, it appears as though the Arsenal manager is still looking at signing a central midfielder and according to a Metro report, it could be the young Portugal international after all.
His current club Sporting Lisbon have apparently accepted that their player wants to move on up as he has made no secret of his ambition. And they are also willing to drop their asking price from over £30 million to a much more reasonable £21.5 million.
Now we know how much Arsene Wenger likes a bargain and it appears that Carvalho has impressed the Arsenal scouts enough for the two clubs to already be involved in transfer talks for a summer move, with other clubs like Liverpool and Man United not having made contact yet.
My question, however, is do we really need a defensive midfielder now? Would it not be better to sign a more all-round sort of player?