Arsenal ready €20m transfer for Nuno Tavares replacement

Having been heavily criticised for changing his team around too much in the latter stages of the season, one alteration Mikel Arteta made to his Arsenal team against Leeds was widely praised.

Aware of the threat Raphinha posed on the right side, Arteta asked Takehiro Tomiyasu to switch sides at full-back and play his first game for the club as left-back.

The 23-year-old is gloriously ambipedal and made the seamless transition over to that side, one designed to give the Gunners more stability than would have been granted had Nuno Tavares started in his favoured role.

Despite showing countless positive signs during the early stages of the season when he displaced Kieran Tierney in the team, Nuno remains incredibly erratic defensively with his positional sense and decision making bringing chaos in the most unwelcome of times.

Arsenal ready €20m transfer for Nuno Tavares replacement as Bologna prepare for Aaron Hickey bids from Mikel Arteta’s side

To suggest there is no hope for him would be stretching it, though, as it wasn’t long ago he was tearing it up at left-back and even being linked to Manchester City during the peak of his powers around October/November time.

Nonetheless, the decision to play Tomiyasu and even Granit Xhaka ahead of him on occasion does more than indicate that the coaching staff aren’t ready to rely on him just yet. As per local Bologna paper Corriere di Bologna (via Sport Witness), Arsenal are ready to act.

Links to Aaron Hickey had emerged over the past week, with the 19-year-old enjoying a fine season in Serie A for Tomiyasu’s previous employers. Predominantly a left-back, Hickey is statistically even more two-footed than his former teammate, and has featured at left wing-back, right-back, and right wing-back this season. During his days in his native Scotland he was even seen as a future central midfielder.

The paper adds that Arsenal see Hickey as a replacement for Nuno and that an offer of €20m (£17m) is inbound. Further movement is expected over the coming days.

Any interest in a two-footed full-back who plays predominantly on the left spells bad news for Nuno. Unless Cedric can be moved on and Hickey can be the backup right-back, it does strongly hint that the summer signing could be on the move in some capacity just 12 months after arriving.

Netting five goals this season, Hickey has shown a keen eye for goal with either foot (it all sounds very Nuno-like when he arrived), while his recovery pace and defensive stability in transition are encouraging signs for someone so young. There is plenty of development potential there.

Being a local paper there will be some scepticism over how ‘close’ Arsenal actually are, with this talk likely to bubble up other interest or make fellow interested parties move, but there are a growing number of links to the Scot who might fancy going head-to-head with Tierney for a starting spot in north London.