Brazilian star coy on Arsenal transfer but Spurs could outbid Gunners

The rumours and reports about the 20-year old Brazilian star Bernard signing for Arsenal have been gathering pace over the last few days, but the player himself has refused to confirm or deny them. His words will not stop the speculation, though. Arsene Wenger did issue an outright denial, but nobody seems to have believed the Frenchman, as he does have previous form for deceiving us over Arsenal transfers.

Bernard is a highly thought of left sided attacking player, and he has been linked with a number of clubs around Europe, including Liverpool and Tottenham. The Champions League runners up Borussia Dortmund were also thought to be very keen, and they need to replace Mario Gotze.

Just because of the competition, I would be surprised if we had wrapped up the signing easily, and there may well be some jostling to be done. Bernard looks like he will leave his current club Atletico Mineiro, but he and his club have the small matter of the final of the Copa Libertadores to worry about on Wednesday.

When asked about the Arsenal transfer Bernard replied, “I don’t want to talk about this in a week as important as this one.

“I don’t know what will happen after the game. My future at Atletico Mineiro will be in the board’s hands from Thursday onwards.”

The reason I say that Tottenham could beat Arsenal to Bernard, assuming that Wenger is trying to sign him in the first place, is that the spuds could soon have a big Gareth Bale shaped hole in their team and a big wedge of cash from Real Madrid to spend, according to reports in the Spanish media. If this is the case, AVB will be keen to buy a good left sided player and they have already been linked with Bernard. I already doubt whether Wenger would pay over £20 million for an untried young player, so if Tottenham were to raise the price, I think they would win. Time will tell…