As reported by French daily L'Equipe (h/t ESPN FC's Mark Rodden), Cavani left for his winter break before PSG's final match of 2015, a decision that did not sit well with a number of team-mates. Cavani was unable to play due to a calf injury, but several players wanted him to stay for the final match, per the report.
Blanc admitted to reporters there had been a meeting to discuss several issues with the squad, including the situation with the Uruguay international, although he tried to talk down the incident:
We have several meetings like that to talk about various problems. Not only problems, incidentally -- things to improve, things to look at again, things to change.
So we did indeed talk about Cavani too but it wasn't the main talking point of the meeting.
We discussed Cavani for a precise problem. It was in-house dealings like we discussed other times for other players.
Cavani is not a problem. There was a situation that had to be judged, that had to be discussed and that we had to have an exchange about. That's all.
The 28-year-old has already scored 10 goals in 14 Ligue 1 starts this season, per WhoScored.com, but his future in the French capital remains unclear. Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport (h/t Independent's Tom Sheen) claims the Gunners have been given the “green light” to make a bid, with an asking price of £40 million expected.
This latest incident involving Cavani will do little to silence transfer speculation, which has existed ever since the player first joined PSG. A star striker with Napoli, he was forced to reinvent himself as a winger to play alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Paris, and it inevitably led to questions.
In January 2014, it was already suggested he wanted to leave the club, per the Daily Mail (h/t ESPN FC), and similar versions of the same rumour have popped up in every single transfer window since.
The story is usually similar: Cavani doesn't like playing second fiddle to Ibrahimovic and feels like he should be a main striker, not a winger. Per WhoScored, nearly half of his starts this season have been central, but Cavani wants more, as he doesn't play his best football out wide.
Cavani is a hot-and-cold type of player, who can look wildly impressive in two or three straight matches and miss the easiest of chances in the next. The lack of consistency may have something to do with his constant moving between winger and striker, but it won't convince too many teams to spend some £40 million on him.
Bleacher Report UK's Andrew Gibney noted the PSG fans aren't always too keen on Cavani, either:
The Cavani situation remains one of the oddest in French football, as he always seems to be on the verge of leaving Paris, but never actually does. At a price of £40 million, it will be hard to find any takers, particularly a club like Arsenal, who have an established scorer in Olivier Giroud and don't often throw around that kind of money.
Speaking of strikers who are seemingly always linked with Arsenal, Atletico Madrid's Jackson Martinez once again makes an appearance.
Gossip website Don Balon (h/t Daily Express' Dan Gibbs) claims Atletico manager Diego Simeone wants to sell the Colombian to the Gunners in order to facilitate a move for Inter Milan's Mauro Icardi. Don Balon is not to be confused with the Spanish magazine that went out of business in 2011.
Martinez has been a flop since moving to Spain during the summer, scoring just two goals in La Liga action, per WhoScored.com. He was consistently linked with the Gunners before moving to Atletico, per Anthony Chapman of the Daily Express, so it's not much of a surprise to see these rumours pop up once again.
The total lack of goals means Arsenal will likely have no interest in taking Martinez off Simeone's hands whatsoever, and that's assuming the manager is actually ready to give up on his big summer acquisition. So far, he has backed the player at every turn, per Goal's Nicholas McGee.
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