Arsenal: Riyad Mahrez taking huge risk by leaving Leicester City

Arsenal are knocking on the door of Riyad Mahrez, hoping to bring him to North London, but the risk involved for the Algerian is massive.

The entire known world was after Riyad Mahrez last summer after his PFA player of the year season, but this summer, Arsenal leads the way and there aren’t a whole lot of suitors challenging them.

Since the drop off of Leicester, all of their valuable assets have lost considerable value. Mahrez still holds the most, but even then, he will not be commanding the same fee he was supposed to fetch last summer.

Still, the links are incredibly heavy tying Mahrez to Arsenal. The Sun is reporting that Craig Shakespeare is already resigned to losing his star man.

But there is one major thing we have to think about before jumping on board with this supposed transfer. And that one thing is the risk involved for Mahrez.

As it stands, Mahrez is the top dog on a mid table team. If he were to take that voyage to the Emirates, his situation would drastically change. Unless either Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez leaves the club, then Mahrez is not going to be a part of the first team. He will play in secondary competitions and that is that.

Arsene Wenger will never sit either of his superstars. Absolutely not. Even when Ozil was at his worst he still played every game, unless he was ill.

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But in the 3-4-3 especially, those two attacking midfield positions are crucial and Alexis and Ozil have been manning them very well. That is the only place that Mahrez would fit into the puzzle and there just isn’t room for him to do much more than sit, watch, and wait for substitute appearances or secondary competitions.

Either that or he can try out wingback, but something tells me that he isn’t too keen on having to completely change his responsibilities on the pitch just to join a new club.

The only other source of redemption I can think of is if Mahrez is so dedicated to maximizing his talent that he is willing to fight tooth and nail against the two top players on the club in order to earn a position in the first team. But what is the likelihood of that? Mahrez has already tasted glory as well as personal achievement. Starting from scratch probably does’t sound that appealing.

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It could turn into a frustrating situation for him before long. Much like Lucas Perez. But then again, no great strides were ever made without certain risks involved.

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