Arsenal loanee Marquinhos currently looks likely to return to the Gunners in January, after falling out of favour with Fluminense.
Arsenal winger Marquinhos joined Fluminense in February on a year-long loan. The Brazilian season operates on a calendar-year basis, so that offered him the chance to play their 2024 campaign from start to finish.
The deal included an option to buy, and it even had a 50% sell-on clause for any future transfers – if Fluminense decided to make the move permanent before cashing in on him later.
Another upside of the move was that it delayed the issue of dealing with Marquinhos’ long-term future for a year, giving him plenty of opportunities to play football in the meantime.
But over eight months later, the most likely outcome appears to be an Arsenal return.
Things didn’t start out badly for Marquinhos with Fluminense. He went straight into their starting lineup in the league, playing all but two minutes of their first nine Serie A games following his arrival.
Even the winger’s hamstring injury in June didn’t appear to affect him too much, as he returned to the side immediately and made four starts in a row.
By the end of July, he’d made 24 appearances for the side. But unfortunately, it’s been all downhill from there.
Marquinhos suffered a second hamstring injury at the end of July, returning to fitness in late August. But this time around, he didn’t break back into the starting lineup.
Fluminense have played 12 games since Marquinhos’ recovery. He’s made the squad for 11 of them, but only featured on the pitch twice.
Once was a short substitute appearance on September 29th, the other was a start on October 18th. He was withdrawn at half-time of that match, though he did at least win a penalty for his team.
64 minutes of football in 12 games is certainly indicative of a player who is out of favour. Unless something changes in the final seven games of Marquinhos’ loan, a return to Arsenal looks likely in January.
