Why this cash-plus-player deal makes sense

William Carvalho has once again reappeared on Arsene Wenger’s radar with reports suggesting the Frenchman will make a move for the 23-year-old and could use Joel Campbell as a makeweight in the proposed deal.

The Portuguese midfielder has previously been linked with a move to the Emirates and the Gunners were said to be keen on him last summer.

However, Sporting’s £35 million price-tag, as well as issues surrounding third-party ownership was enough to scare Arsenal off. But these issues have reportedly been overcome, and the Portuguese outfit are believed to have lowered their asking price from £35 million to £21.5 million.

But Arsenal could get their man even cheaper as Sporting have an interest in Campbell, who is currently on loan to Villarreal – a cash-plus-player swap could well be on the cards as a result.

Despite a handful of appearances, Campbell has struggled to settle at Arsenal and has spent the majority of his career at the Emirates on loan.

After signing Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck last summer, Campbell has dropped even further down the pecking order and despite his huge potential, Wenger could well allow him to leave at the end of the season.

We do have a number of midfield options already, three of which are defensive-minded – Mathieu Flamini, Mikel Arteta and Francis Coquelin. But with the former two getting on, Wenger needs to bring in another youthful anchor-men to compete with Coquelin, and Carvahlo would certainly do this.

Campbell is valued at around the £6 million mark, according to Transfermarkt.co.uk, so the Costa Rican forward plus £15 million could be enough to tempt Sporting into selling Carvalho to Arsenal this summer.

It makes perfect sense. Let’s see what happens here.