- 21 hours ago
Forgotten Arsenal defender wanted by Marseille in shock January transfer
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 19 Jan 2024 15:21 GMT
- 3 min read
Marseille are interested in signing Arsenal left-back Nuno Tavares, currently on loan at Nottingham Forest, according to a report in France’s L’Equipe.
Tavares is a familiar face to Marseille supporters having spent last season on loan at the Stade Velodrome, appearing 39 times and scoring six goals across all competitions.
It has been a much less successful loan spell for the 23-year-old at Forest; he has not appeared in the Premier League since September and has only played five times overall.
His two most recent games were against lowly Blackpool in the FA Cup third round and the subsequent replay.
The Portuguese defender joined Forest in the late stages of the summer transfer window with an option to purchase on a permanent basis for £12m inserted into the deal.
Marseille cash in on Renan Lodi
However, it looks all but certain that Forest won’t be taking that option up on Tavares and instead, he could be on the move again.
Marseille require left-back cover having sold Renan Lodi to Neymar’s Al-Hilal this week for around €25m despite only signing the Brazilian from Atletico Madrid last summer.
Arsenal were desperate to offload Tavares last summer with Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jurrien Timber, Jakob Kiwior and Kieran Tierney all ahead of him in the pecking order.
They were unsuccessful in attracting sufficient bids and decided to move ahead with the Forest loan instead.
Mikel Arteta could well be about to cut that loan deal short in order to facilitate an exit to Ligue 1. Furthermore, L’Equipe reports that the player is open to the possibility of returning to Marseille.
Tavares has played only 28 times for Arsenal since signing from Benfica for around £8m in 2021 and is out of contract in the summer of 2025.
