A year ago today, Mikel Arteta unveiled a relatively unknown left-back from Benfica called Nuno Tavares. Arsenal paid just £6.8 million for the youngster, and to be fair, early on in the season he looked like a real bargain as he was covering for the ever-injured Kieran Tierney, with many fans suggesting that he could be the first choice for that position ahead of Tierney.
But Tierney was reinstated when fit and it seemed that Tavares didn’t enjoy being relegated to the bench. When he was finally brought back when Tierney got injured yet again he seemed to be lacking in confidence and emotionally out of sorts, so much so that Mikel Arteta played Xhaka as left-back instead att times.
But hopefully he will be more settled after a year in London and he may be able to improve his consistency. But the consensus amongst Arsenal fans seem to be that we should bring in a more experienced left-back and send Tavares out on loan. In fact Fabrizio Romano reports that there are many interested clubs. The transfer guru told the Que Goalazo Podcast: “Tavares has many proposals. Spanish clubs, French clubs and Italian clubs are all interested in him, but at the moment, Arsenal are not accepting any bid for Tavares.
“So, let’s see. I saw these rumours, but at the moment, I’m told it’s not something like close or imminent.”
To be honest, I do think that we should be bringing in a new left-back to cover for Tierney, but I don’t think that Tavares should be sent out on loan either. He should be at least be playing in the early rounds of the Europa League and given time to rebuild his confidence, and if needed we could still loan him out in January….
What do you think?
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