Arsenal left-back Nuno Tavares is currently on loan at French outfit Marseille but it would hardly be a shock if he never returns to the Emirates if his recent comments are anything to go by.
The defender endured a hit-and-miss debut campaign with the Gunners last season, starting brightly enough before two humiliating substitutions against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace respectively curtailed his season. Things have started strongly for Tavares at the Stade Velodrome and recent remarks suggest he could be tempted into staying permanently.
The Portugal Under-21 defender was pressed for comment over his future during an interview with La Provence, during which he kept his cards close to his chest when it came to his plans in the next summer transfer window.
"The future? I do not think about it. I live in the moment day by day. I have no prospects, I keep my feet on the ground. The World? I don't really think about it. My goal is to do a good job at OM," he explained.
Tavares was certainly a lot less willing to lay his feelings bare in that exchange than he was last month when he made little effort to hide his disappointment over the fact Arsenal refused to insert an option to buy clause in his loan deal with the Ligue 1 side.
"At Arsenal, I do not know if it was a problem of competition with Kieran Tierney, but for me, that's not even the point," the defender told RMC Sport.
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"I came to Marseille to finally be able to play in my position. When signing with OM, I wanted to have an option to buy, but Arsenal refused. With my agents, we always wanted this purchase option, but Arsenal didn't. Now I'm at OM, and with or without an option, I'm happy. At Arsenal, I would have probably only played in the cup."
His closing comments may have been the ones that stung the most, given Tavares took the opportunity to mention how Marseille boast Champions League football while his parent club do not.
"I came to Marseille to play in my position, in the Champions League, in the league and in the cup [competition]. Marseille gave me this opportunity."
For all of his comments, the plan still seems to be for Tavares to return to Arsenal this summer to try and force his way back into Arteta's plans.
"For Nuno's development, I think it's going to be really important [playing regularly]," the Arsenal boss explained in the wake of Tavares' loan switch.
"Obviously, we have recruited Oleks [Oleksandr Zinchenko] in that position and we have Kieran as well, which are two really strong players in that position, and we believe that Nuno's best solution was to do that."
