Luiz Gustavo has admitted he wants to play for Arsenal this summer, with the club hopeful on completing a £14 million deal for the Bayern Munich defensive midfielder this week, according to the Guardian. Gustavo has been deemed surplus to requirements at Bayern having played second fiddle to Javi Martinez for much of last season, making just 22 Bundesliga appearances. But having impressed at the recent Confederations Cup, he has emerged on the Gunner's radar. And the 26-year-old feels as though first-team opportunities will be even more scarce this season given that Bayern have just signed Thiago Alcantara from Barcelona, and has welcomed a potential move to the Emirates. Upon arrival in Basel for Brazil's friendly against Switzerland, Gustavo said:
"My contract with Bayern runs until 2015 but it is very important that I play first-team football to keep getting called up for Brazil. I am in a very delicate situation at Bayern and this needs sorting out. I have personal and professional reasons to move."
And he also admitted for the first time that he would "like to play" for Arsenal. He continued:
"I have heard about the Arsenal interest. It's a big club we're talking about here so of course I'd like to play for them."
Gustavo has also attracted attention from Bayern's Bundesliga rivals Wolfsburg and also Italian outfit Napoli. But the midfielder heaped praise on Gunner's manager Arsene Wenger and revealed it is a move to the London side that really catches his eye.
"Arsenal play a very attractive brand of football and are in the Champions League. They also have a very clever manager in Arsène Wenger. Even when Bayern beat them in the last Champions League you could see they are not pushovers."
And if a move to Arsenal does come to fruition, it will be because of Gustavo's impressive performances at the Confederations Cup. The midfielder was virtually unknown in his home country prior to this summer's competition, but after excelling under Luiz Felipe Scolari, has become an attractive option for Wenger.