Arsenal Leading The Race For William Carvalho

The 22-year old Sporting’s defensive midfielder William Carvalho is definitely one of the most wanted footballers at the English football these days, with Arsenal, Manchester United and even Manchester City still allegedly battling for him as we speak. According to recent reports from the media, the Gunners have offered Sporting £23.9 million for the young Angolan-born Portuguese midfielder and, although the team’s board has already denied the player’s departure, they have apparently considered Arsenal’s latest tempting offer.

Sporting’s chairman, Bruno de Carvalho, has already dismissed several times the fact that William Carvalho will leave the club this season, nevertheless the periclitant financial situation of the historical Lisbon team might force the board to sell one of their biggest assets if a tempting offer emerges. The powerful defensive midfielder has a modest €5k per month payroll and Arsenal will certainly not have any problems in offering him ten or even twenty times more than what he currently earns at the end of the month.

Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger, is reportedly looking to strengthen the team’s midfield line with a powerful and all-terrain midfielder capable of offering some extra consistency to the Gunners’ shaky defence line, which showed some profound deficiencies last season. William Carvalho and Sami Khedira are allegedly the players Wenger would like to have in the team this season, but he will probably only be able to snatch one of them. Because of his high wage demands, Real Madrid’s current midfielder could have already be ruled out by Arsenal’s board, who now certainly look at William Carvalho as a bargain catch.

The young Portuguese defensive midfielder managed to make a stand at Sporting’s team last term after being out on loan for several seasons. The current AS Monaco coach, Leonardo Jardim, who was the helm of the Lisbon’s team in the last campaign, entrusted him with the task of leading Sporting’s midfield, along with Adrien Silva, and he delivered perfectly. William Carvalho is a not a classic defensive midfielder and although he shows some impressive marking and positioning skills, he is, at the same time, very competent when it comes to passing the ball around and helping the team on their attacking movements.

Despite Sporting’s resilience to sell the player, this new and alleged offer by Arsenal might prove to be enough to convince the Portuguese team’s board, since they are profoundly in need of money to stabilize their current unstable financial situation.