Fulham 'agree loan deal for Arsenal's Cedric Soares'

The Cottagers have been working to bring the 31-year-old to West London for some time now, but wages have supposedly presented a stumbling block in negotiations.

Furthermore, Fulham have already reached their limit on loan players for the current season, having brought Leeds United's Daniel James and Brighton & Hove Albion's Shane Duffy to the club on temporary deals.

In order to facilitate Cedric's arrival, Fulham are reportedly set to turn Duffy's loan move into a permanent transfer, thus opening up a second loan spot for the Arsenal defender.

According to journalist David Ornstein, Cedric's switch to Craven Cottage is now "done", and an announcement can be expected imminently.

A separate update from Ornstein in The Athletic states that Fulham have been keen to bring in competition for Kenny Tete, and Marco Silva identified Cedric as the perfect fit.

FC Twente's Joshua Brenet was also the subject of interest from Fulham, but the Cottagers continued to prioritise a deal for Cedric and will seemingly wrap up a deadline-day move in the coming hours.

The Portugal international has been relegated to Arsenal's third-choice right-back this season, finding himself behind Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu in the pecking order.

Cedric has made just four appearances for Mikel Arteta's team in the 2022-23 campaign, and his only start came in the Gunners' 3-1 EFL Cup third-round defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in November.

The former Southampton man has two goals and five assists to boast from 59 games in an Arsenal jersey since joining in 2020, but he is out of contract at the end of next season.

Cedric will link up with fellow deadline-day signing Sasa Lukic at Craven Cottage after Fulham confirmed the arrival of the 26-year-old midfielder from Torino for a reported £8m.