Arsene Wenger has been reportedly linked with yet another young midfielder and according to Don Balon, Arsenal manager is very keen on making a swoop for Real Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente who is performing admirably well at Deportivo Alaves, the club he has joined on loan at the start of this season.
The 21-year old midfielder started his youth career at Las Rozas in 2002 and after having short spells in Rocena and Rayo Majadahonda, in 2008, he joined Real Madrid youth academy at 13 years of age and graduated into the Real Madrid B side in 2014.
Llorente had featured 62 times for the B side and scored three times. Coming from a family with a rich football history, Llorente showed his talent which he inherited from his father Paco who was a winger. In fact, his great uncle Francisco Gento, who is still regarded as one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, played as a winger and his grandfather Ramon Grosso was a forward. When football runs in your blood, it shows and in the case of the 21-year old, this season the talent has been on show with him getting chances to showcase it every week donning the badge of Alaves.
Current Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane is also a big admirer of the player and sees him as a potential first team regular but at the moment the likes of Luka Modric, Tony Kroos and Casemiro are all ahead of him in the pecking order. Which is why a loan move to Alaves has been sanctioned by Real Madrid, to keep the player match fit and continue his development.
Llorente is able to play as a central midfielder as well as a defensive midfielder and is an excellent tackler. He has the rare ability to win back possession in the middle of the pitch and play a defence-splitting pass to his forward line which makes him an absolute asset for the team. This particular trait has caught the eye of Arsene Wenger who has acknowledged the rare ability the midfielder possesses.
Llorente was previously reluctant to leave Real Madrid at the start of the season but the club loaned him out to Alaves for the season and there was also no return clause which is why the Los Blancos couldn’t recall the player to replace the injured Casemiro who suffered an injury against Espanyol in the middle of September 2016.
Llorente later revealed that he went out to get more playing time under his belt. Having the name of a member of the family eternally linked with Real Madrid it would be tough for the midfielder to leave the Bernabeu for any other club on a permanent basis but the promise of continuous game time in the most competitive league in the world under the guidance of a manager renowned for developing young players into superstars is also not something one could let go off easily.
Thus it would be very interesting to see what happens if the Gunners make a move for the player at the end of this season.
