Arsenal: Leicester City want Gunners to have Thomas Lemar

Arsenal turned to Riyad Mahrez when their Thomas Lemar bid was rejected. Leicester City are doing the Gunners a favor by stiffing their advances.

Arsenal’s pursuit of a wide, creative attacker to take over when Alexis Sanchez inevitably leaves is getting pretty exciting. We just have to hope their is a resolution that involves getting what we want and not settling for someone that was never going to factor into anything.

The reports show a pretty clear tactic. Arsenal first sent off a £31m bid for Thomas Lemar, which was rejected, with an asking price said to be around £50m (I’m officially dismissing the idea that they’d have to spend £80m). The Gunners then turned to Leicester City and Riyad Mahrez, assumedly levying a bid around the same as their initial Lemar bid.

That too was reportedly rejected, leaving Riyad Mahrez “fuming” as he seeks to jump ship on the three years left on his contract.

Which has then led to reports that the Gunners are turning back to Lemar and submitting an improved bid, albeit only £9m more than their initial bid.

The back and forth is what we can assume will happen going forward, which means that Leicester City may be the surprising drivers in this transfer saga. If they keep rejecting bids for Mahrez, which I can only hope they do, then Wenger will have no choice but to go with his first option and keep raising his bids.

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Or at least, that’s hypothetically how it should work.

I have made it abundantly clear who I think is the more beneficial signing. Lemar has half a decade on Mahrez in terms of age and his early burst into the spotlight shows a promising future that Arsene Wenger could help turn into a bonafide star.

He is a versatile player that creates as well as he finishes and he has nowhere to go but up.

Mahrez may well benefit from a change in scenery. That’s completely reasonable to think. But he also might just have been figured out. None of his stats match what he did in that initial foray into Premier League stardom, so it’s hard to say that it’s only the team that is holding him back.

If Leicester really are asking £50m for Mahrez, then that is a massive favor done for the Gunners. Because that same price will ideally be able to secure Lemar.

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Call me a part-time Foxes’ fan if their desire to hang onto Mahrez helps Lemar become a North Londoner.

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