Arsenal: 3 reasons Ruben Neves should not be signed

1. Jorge Mendes Would Enter the Fray at Arsenal

Fans want Willian and Cedric Soares gone from the club. There are footballing reasons for both but the additional benefit would spell the end of Kia Joorabchian’s fingers being in Arsenal’s pie.

Jorge Mendes is one of the super-agents on the continent. Wolves don’t give one toss about it and make no effort to hide it, which is anyway hard enough with 524 Portuguese players in their squad and his personal involvement in nearly 20 deals.

Edu has proven himself to be someone who likes to get friendly with the wrong people. Mendes and Edu may well already be close pals, but it should only ever remain as that.

The introduction of someone like him would impact future signings and decisions, while this club has to stop paying exorbitant fees to agents for ‘doing them a favour’. For Mendes, he received no less than £6.4m of the £35m transfer fee Wolves dished out to sign Fabio Silva last summer, and he isn’t even the player’s agent.

For a club overhauling its scouting department after wholesale changes, the potential arrival of someone who would get under Edu’s skin and wrangle himself a few deals and a few million quid is not wanted. Agents are unavoidable in the sport no matter how well-known they are, but those with power like Mendes should be avoided.

This is alone isn’t a reason not to sign Neves, but it sure adds to it.