Why Arsenal should avoid a move for talented starlet Nuno Mendes
According to O Jogo (h/t Mirror), highly-rated Sporting Lisbon star Nuno Mendes is wanted by the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool. Arsenal remain the most interested of the three but they also face competition from AC Milan.
Sporting are, however, playing hardball over the transfer fee, which is deterring a lot of clubs from proceeding ahead with the deal.
Profile
Nuno Mendes is an 18-year-old Portuguese left-back who plays for Sporting Lisbon. He started his youth career at Despertar in 2010 but moved to Sporting a year later. Since then, he has progressed through various age groups before stepping up to the senior team.
So far, he has made just 9 appearances for Sporting but has managed to impress everyone. Capable of playing as a left or right-sided centre-back too, Mendes is a very versatile player.
Do Arsenal need Mendes?
It’s safe to say that Arsenal have a huge stock of defenders at their disposal but most of the older members of the team are out of favour.
A similar situation is there on the left. Kieran Tierney has just started to make the role his own and Bukayo Saka has emerged as another standout player who can play there when needed. Sead Kolasinac has been linked with a return to Schalke, as reported by Sky Sports Germany.
A move for Nuno Mendes at this stage doesn’t look like a priority for Arsenal as the club look to bolster the midfield with the signing of Thomas Partey (source – Sky Sports).
It clearly looks like Arsenal don’t quite need Nuno Mendes at this point in time where the club are in the process of offloading players surplus to requirements to pursue specific targets.
Read More
- Why Thomas Partey would be a fantastic addition to Arsenal
- Opinion: Arsenal should avoid a move for West Ham’s Felipe Anderson
- Why Arsenal should keep their eyes off Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard
Verdict
A new contract that runs until 2025 means that Mendes has a release clause of €45million (source – Mirror). Now, that is a sum any club would flinch to pay for a player who has yet to play a decent number of games for the senior side.
Sporting are under no hurry to sell at a price lower than the release clause, which gives Arsenal all the more reason to not pursue this deal. Instead, they should look to follow their original plans for the transfer window.
