'Impossible' - Arsenal get major Nuno Tavares update

Stuart Telford

• 10 Mar 2023 09:12 GMT
• 3 min read

Arsenal youngster Nuno Tavares, currently on loan with Marseille in Ligue 1, has given a major update on his future.

Tavares has impressed on his season-long loan with Marseille, contributing six assists in 22 league games from left wing-back, and the nine-time French champions are interested in extending his stay at the Stade Velodrome.

Arsenal and Marseille only agreed a one-year deal, though, with no option included to make it permanent, and Tavares, despite having Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney for competition back in North London, has every intention of coming home.

READ: Revealed: Arsenal 'refused' Nuno Tavares a key transfer request

"Everyone knows that I have two years left on my contract with Arsenal," said the 23-year-old, who joined the Gunners from Benfica for €8 million in 2021. "I'll finish the season here, achieve our goals with OM and then I'll return to London. I can't say anything more."

— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 18, 2022

Marseille-based newspaper La Provence don't even think the club will test the status quo.

Marseille stay 'impossible'

"Inside the club, it is believed to be impossible for the Gunners to loan him out again with just 24 months to left on his contract," they write. "And the Olympian staff categorically rejects the idea of a transfer."

Zinchenko has become undisputed first choice as Arsenal left-back, but Tierney could be for sale next summer, with Newcastle the most recent club to be linked with a move for the Scotsman.

READ: Arsenal ready to swap €40m star to land Juventus midfielder

Tavares has been part of an Arsenal old boys' network in Marseille this season, counting Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Guendouzi and Sead Kolasinac as teammates on the Mediterranean coast.

Kolasinac, who made a permanent move from Arsenal last January, provides natural cover for OM at left-back.

Tavares, a Portugal under-21 international, is currently valued at €17.3m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm. Whether or not the Gunners cash in on him remains to be seen.