When they return, Tavares will almost certainly be back out of the side again with Aina starting the previous two matches before leaving for the Ivory Coast. The 23-year-old was signed for around £8million in 2021 but since has been pushed further down in Mikel Arteta’s pecking order after the arrivals of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Jurrien Timber.
There is no recall clause in Tavares’ loan agreement with Nottingham Forest, football.londonunderstands and so the clubs would need to come to an agreement over the termination of the deal. This would be unlikely to be sorted until the East Midlands club see some of their African players return from the tournament and with a FA Cup fourth-round tie with Bristol City on January 26 it would likely be a late call.
Arsenal visit the City Ground on January 30 and Tavares would be ineligible for the game. Harry Toffolo would be the obvious choice amongst an even further restricted choice of options for Espirito Santo.
Marseille signed Tavares on loan for the entirety of last season. He played 31 Ligue 1 games scoring six goals but failing to convince OM to make the move permanent in the summer.
According to L’Equipe, Tavares was told to leave Marseille training by then-head coach Igor Tudor because of a poor work ethic. "In my football, there is a feature, you have to run", he said before the French outlet confirmed Tavares being the player Tudor was referring to.
"And if you don’t… If I see one player that doesn’t run in training, I’ll say it once, twice and then on the third time of asking, I’ll intervene.”
Gennaro Gattuso has since taken charge of the French club and the squad includes former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who Tavares could link up with again. The managerial switch would give Tavares a fresh start in Marseille if the three clubs can come to an agreement to complete a complicated deal.
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