Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Joelson Fernandes still waiting for his opportunity after summer Arsenal transfer links
This summer saw Arsenal linked with a host of names, including the occasional unknown.
One such player was Sporting Lisbon winger Joelson Fernandes.
over the summer that the player, tipped as the next Cristiano Ronaldo by those at current club Sporting Lisbon, had held talks with Arsenal. that Fernandes would not sign a new deal at the club if it contained a proposed €70 million (£64m) release clause and that Arsenal were ready to swoop with a £13.5 million deal.
The deal certainly looked doable. With Kia Joorabchian the youngster’s agent, Arsenal also had a strong link with his representative.
But the deal never happened. that Arsenal had to cancel plans to fly out to Portugal and tie up a deal. They reportedly lacked the necessary funds to sign the teenager.
But his name has been cropping up again recently.
So how has the 17-year-old fared since his apparent move to Arsenal fell through?
At the start of the season, it appeared that all that interest from abroad had seen Sporting realise a need to involve Joelson in the first-team.
The teenager was on the bench for three out of the first four league games of the season and the Europa League win over Aberdeen.
However, he has since been left out of the first-team squad since October and recently found himself back in the Sporting under-23 set-up for a 3-0 loss against Benfica in the Liga Revelacao.
So it seems the ‘next Ronaldo’ is not having it all his own way when it comes to getting first-team football at Sporting. Which makes you wonder if Arsenal would be making the right decision spending big on the player at this point.
Joelson is yet to have any first-team impact and considering finances are said to be tight at The Emirates spending a big chunk of their money on a player who would not make an immediate first-team impact would seem irresponsible on the Gunners part.