Gunners believe that a deal can now be done for William Carvalho.
Arsenal are set to return to Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon with a £20 million offer for highly rated defensive midfielder William Carvalho, report the Mail, with the Gunners seemingly believing that Carvalho will now be available at a more realistic fee after Sporting were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stages.
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Arsene Wenger and his team had entered negotiations with Sporting over bringing the young Portuguese international to the Emirates Stadium in the summer, but they were put off by an exorbitant £30m asking price and decided not to bring in a central midfielder during the summer window.
With Sporting having been knocked out of the Champions League by FC Schalke on the last round of fixtures, however, they could now be tempted to accept a lower fee for Carvalho, particularly with the club underperforming horribly in Portuguese domestic football and looking unlikely to make a return to the competition next season, opening up the possibility of sales being required to plug the financial gap.
Long touted as one of the most exciting young players in Europe, the high demands of Sporting have put off continental giants from concluding a deal for Carvalho so far, but this change in circumstances, coupled with the fact that negotiations reportedly ended on friendly terms, could open the door to a January deal being done.