Marseille boss Igor Tudor believes Nuno Tavares could end up doing far more than “tormenting” Ligue 1 defenders, if he carries on at his current trajectory.
And the Croatian boss also believes the Arsenal loanee doesn’t fully understand just how good he could be. Tavares decided to follow the lead of his team-mate William Saliba and make the move to the Stade Velodrome.
Saliba enjoyed a coming-of-age campaign with the French giants, returning to North London as a starter in Mikel Arteta’s exciting young side. Tavares joined the Gunners last summer - but endured a difficult first season in English football.
In total, he made 28 appearances in all competitions, but suffered the humiliation of being withdrawn before half time on two occasions. Arteta decided the left-back would be best served by making a temporary move, with Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney both ahead of him in the pecking order.
"For Nuno's development, I think it's going to be really important [playing regularly],” he said of the decision to loan him out. "Obviously, we have recruited Oleks 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."
And Tavares is taking full advantage of that regular football - scoring three times in just seven Ligue 1 games, with Marseille level on points with PSG at the top of the table. Tudor, who has a number of ex-Premier League stars, including Alexis Sanchez and Eric Bailly in his squad, singled out the 22-year-old and tipped him for a massive future in the game.
“He sometimes doesn’t even realise his qualities,” Tudor said. “It is so hard to follow him when he accelerates. If he continues at this pace, he risks tormenting more than one Ligue 1 defence.”
Tudor’s positive update follows on from Tottenham legend Glenn Hoddle suggesting that the Portuguese already looks a different player for his new club. He’s confident, he looks at home in a Marseille shirt, at Arsenal, he never seemed it,” Hoddle explained after Marseille’s defeat to Spurs.
“He’s making the difference here, he’s a player now with an attitude of ‘I’m going to make that run and score, I’m going to have a shot from there’, and he’s got three goals. He looks like a completely different player – it just shows you what confidence does”
But for all the positivity, there will be an element of concern from Arsenal fans and Mikel Arteta alike, after Tavares stated he would prefer to stay with Marseille permanently.
"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," Tavares told French outlet RMC Sport.
"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. 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."
