By Sir Hardly Anyone
The last edition of the transfer files on this site contains 107 players who are reputed to be signing for Arsenal. And now at last we have one who actually has signed. So one out of 107; that makes a 0.93% success rate.
But let us have a look at some of the things these awfully clever chaps who run the transfer window blogs and newspapers told us. For this is a real case of all you need to know about our new signing: Nuno Tavares. He has signed a five year contract according to TBR, Metro, and Sport Witness. Mind you that was three weeks ago, just at the time in which HITC was telling us that he had a release clause of £75m. I don’t quite think we met that amount.
Interestingly Football Talk told us that he had signed three weeks ago, and at the same time TBR said much the same thing. The Canon came in a week later again telling us that the deal was done, while Sport Witness told us a while back he had had his medical, which now seems not to have been the case.
Mind you HITC chimed in with him being spotted at the airport and surely we must give thanks for the return of such an old friend. The only question is, what was anyone doing at an airport?
But it is not all good news, as TBR, Just Arsenal and Sport Witness have him down as a difficult personality with worrying weaknesses.
So there we are – up to the moment we get him, he’s mostly, but not always a wonderkid who remains out of Arsenal’s reach, while the moment we get him he is not the sort of person we want. It was ever thus!
The current story from the Guardian is “Arsenal confirm Nuno Tavares signing for £6.8m with Lokonga deal close”
- “Left-back arrives from Benfica as understudy to Tierney
- Lokonga deal in place for initial €17.5m from Anderlecht”
According to the Guardian “Edu made it clear that Tavares had been signed as an understudy to Kieran Tierney, saying the player would “provide strong back-up in the left-back position.” So let us try, amidst all the gibberish and nonsense try and find out something more about Nuno Tavares.
So, he’s 21 years old, and is one of 107 players tipped to join Arsenal this summer (so far). He has been given the number 20, and has played 19 games for Benfica B in 2018/19 season, and in the last two seasons, 25 games for Benfica’s first team, scoring one goal.
In the dangerous international arena he plays for Portugal, and made eight appearances for the under 18s, 14 for the under 191s, and two for the under 21s.
So there we are, we have our back up to Tierney who played 26 times in the league last season and another six in the cup competitions. You will of course recall that we were using Xhaka as our backup left back, so this is a perfectly reasonable and rational decision.
The Daily Canon picked up on this recently saying, Tierney “missed 55 games across four seasons meaning the 23-year-old has missed 85 games because of injury problems since the 16/17 season.” Hmmm – more to the point Tierney played 38 games in all competitions last season for Arsenal.
Indeed in his last three seasons with Celtic he played a total of 135 games – which is a massive overplaying of any footballer. I don think more to the point he’s come back down to a reasonable level so his body can catch up from the bumps.
So as a back up for Tierney this this looks a good deal. Tierney to my eye looks second to none in that attacking left back position, but 38 games a year is more than enough for anyone.
Unfortunately, there are no Europa games this year for the new man to get experience with, but we will be starting the League Cup in the second round rather than the third round and so he should get a game or two there. And if we do get a good run in either or both cups Tierney will certainly need a break at some stage.
How newspeak took over football and stopped all debate
- A perfect example of football propaganda and not much to do with reality.
- How viral lies about Arsenal are amplified by the media on a daily basis
- As football supporters we are being brainwashed
- Arsenal: “a disappointing end to what started as a promising campaign.”
- If this were you, and if this were Arsenal, what would you do?
And this coming season, because of his date of birth, I assume Tavares doesn’t take up a slot as one of the overseas players in the squad of 25.