Luiz Gustavo has welcomed a potential move to Arsenal, with the club hopeful of completing a €16 million deal for the Bayern Munich defensive midfielder this week.

Having played a pivotal role for Brazil in the Confederations Cup despite spending most of the European season as understudy to Javi Martinez in the Bundesliga and the Champions League, Gustavo feels his first-team appearances for the German club will become even more scarce under Pep Guardiola and would jump at the chance to move to the Emirates.

“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,” he said on arrival in Basel for Brazil’s friendly against Switzerland. “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 reportedly been targeted by the 2009 Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg, while Napoli are also interested, but it is a move to the Emirates 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 Arsene Wenger. Even when Bayern beat them in the last Champions League (on aggregate) you could see they are not pushovers."

Praised by Luiz Felipe Scolari, who has said Gustavo's reserve status at Bayern will not hamper his national team chances, the midfielder fears competition from countrymen racking up more appearances could change the Brazil manager's mind. "Nobody earns a place in the Brazil squad with past glories. I need to be playing to show I am in proper shape for the team, especially now that we have only friendlies before the World Cup," he said.

After starting only 20 games for Bayern last season owing to the club breaking the Bundesliga transfer record to sign Martinez for €40 million, Gustavo was given the impression his appearances would be even more scarce with the arrival of Thiago Alcantara, Guardiola's main signing since taking over the European champions.

Talks with Guardiola
His fears seem to have been confirmed following talks with Guardiola. "We have talked a couple of times but he has not spoken to me specifically about my situation," Gustavo said. "Personally and professionally there are questions I need to address. The transfer window will close in a couple of weeks."

Virtually unknown back home before the Confederations Cup, Gustavo became a household name under Scolari, starting every match in this summer’s campaign, including the preparatory friendlies against England and France. The technical director Carlos Alberto Parreira compared him to the great Mauro Silva, one of Brazil’s key men in the 1994 World Cup triumph. Gustavo never played for a big club in his native country and left for Hoffenheim in 2007 when he was 20, and the club were still a Bundesliga 2 side.

Gustavo was instrumental as Brazil tormented Spain in the emphatic 3-0 win over the European and world champions at the Maracana in June. In Basel, Gustavo will probably have a good chance to inquire about Premier League life from David Luiz, Oscar, Paulinho and Julio Cesar, although he seems to have done some homework already.
Guardian Service