Arsenal youngster Marcelo Flores will be remaining with Real Oviedo in January, at least if the Spanish’s club president has anything to do with it.
Flores joined Oviedo on loan in the summer in search of regular first-team football away from the Emirates to continue his development.
He’s made 12 appearances for the La Liga2 side so far but has only been in the starting 11 on six occasions and featured in 28% of the available minutes.
That’s a far cry from the situation that he or Arsenal would have anticipated and there have been reports he could be brought back and sent somewhere else.
Club León in Mexico are believed to be particularly keen on his signature and a report last week made it clear they were exploring the possibility of taking him in January.
That deal would have been facilitated by the fact that their owners, Grupo Pachuca, also own Oviedo, and so could work out some sort of agreement with Arsenal.
It seems, though, the Spanish side are not keen on losing the 19-year-old, at least if comments from their president Martin Pelaez are to be believed.
“I can tell you that Marcelo is a Real Oviedo player,” he told Panzas Verdes, relayed by AS Mexico.
“We are very happy with Marcelo; I can’t give you an opinion on a destination that you say is something that is on the radar or is done.
“Marcelo is a player with a lot of potential, he’s 19 years old, I see him as having the quality to continue in Europe.
“He has a lot of room for improvement, he has a great future, he is extremely professional, with an incredible mentality, he has all the conditions to continue in Europe. We hope he continues to grow, he has talent, youth, professionalism, he has a great future with us.
“We have the derby, we have a Copa del Rey game, and once these two games are over, we will evaluate the whole squad and see what the possible signings and departures are.”
