Manchester United’s unsettled winger Nani has emerged as a surprise target for Arsenal.

Linked in the winter with a move to London, it seems Arsenal still harbour an interest in signing the Portuguese forward, for a fee of around £8.5m

Flop

Nani is not exactly flavour of the month at Old Trafford, demanding a bumper new contract despite falling out of favour in a big way this season. He made only 11 appearances, scoring 3 goals, and showed more of his frustrating side than the exciting skill that kept him at United for 6 years.

Arsene Wenger must hope he can tame Nani’s attitude and improve his consistency, if he is to be a success. As it stands Nani is a highly-paid luxury player, and a risk Arsenal cannot necessarily afford. The price is acceptable, but what could be upwards of 100k per week for a player who may not play a huge part is less so.

Unlikely

It’s for this reason that I think this deal won’t come off. United may well be willing to sell Nani to Arsenal-he’s not like to be a huge loss for them, or a huge gain to anybody else.

He’s stubbornly refused to develop since he joined, and much as Arsene Wenger can try he won’t be able to do much with him. He would be a useful addition, but only in the same way that Gervinho is useful (obviously he’s better than Gervinho, but he’d only be useful in patches and couldn’t be relied on all season).

But the money Arsenal would have to expend on Nani isn’t equivalent to what they’d get on the pitch, and it’s for this reason what could be a passing interest will likely remain that.

Latest: