Arsenal chase intensifies for Portuguese midfielder?

According to a report emerging from Portuguese newspaper The Record via Jamie Sanderson at The Metro, Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho--he of the "I'm going to tackle three people at once" school of defensive midfielding--might be more available for an Arsenal move than he was when we last reported about him ten days ago. Here is how Sanderson summed it up:

Carvalho has now been put up for sale by Sporting, with the club looking to cash in this summer.

Sporting are allegedly desperate to raise cash to fund new signings, and after a board meeting this week, the decision has been taken to let Carvalho go.

-- Jamie Sanderson, The Metro

Carvalho has a £35 million release clause, but it sounds like Sporting are willing to entertain bids lower than that as they resign themselves to what seems an inevitability.

More came through on Twitter as the story emerged:

Record don't say Carvalho has been put up for sale as such, they say interest has intensified and Sporting would accept a good bid.

— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) July 30, 2014

Record say Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Valencia all interested in Carvalho.

— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) July 30, 2014

Interesting part is that Record say 'this newspaper knows it (fee) will never be less than 25m Euros' - Sounds like price is tumbling.

— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) July 30, 2014

So Carvalho is/is not "for sale" but "hey we live in a capitalist global hegemony so anything is for sale, really, anything, if one has the cheddar", basically. It is a little dismaying that other big clubs are in the running, supposedly, for the midfielder's services, but given Arsenal's slightly more quick approach to big transfers these days, there's no reason to give up yet.

We must remind everyone, though, that Carvalho's agent is the somewhat too-friendly-with-Mourinho human being Jorge Mendes (profiled here), whose main Arsenal-related work in the past consists 100% of "using Arsenal". So that's not a great aspect of this from an Arsenal perspective.

One more bit via Phil West:

Here's what I had to say a few days ago on Sporting Lisbon and their financial issues. They need the Carvalho money. pic.twitter.com/cpHk5ua1B4

— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) July 30, 2014

We will have more updates for you as things emerge.