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Arsenal free to sign long-term target in club record £61m deal

By mac14 on January 10, 2018

According to a report in the Mirror, Arsenal have been given the green light to sign Thomas Lemar with Monaco now ready to sell the attacker for £61m this month.

Lemar came close to joining Arsenal on deadline day in the summer with a £90m deal on the table but it fell through meaning Alexis Sanchez’s proposed switch to Man City was also called off.

Sanchez is now expected to finally completed his move to City this month meaning Arsene Wenger is once again on the look out for a replacement and it seems the boss has renewed his interest in Lemar.

Liverpool have also been strongly linked with the French international as they look to replace Philippe Coutinho but the Mirror claim that Jurgen Klopp is not prepared to spend big on the young attacker.

That has paved the way for Arsenal to emerge as favourites for his signature and the newspaper says that Monaco have now lowered their asking price with the Ligue 1 outift supposedly ready to do business at £61m (€70m).

The story comes from RMC Sport as journalist Loic Tanzi claims that Lemar is Arsenal’s first choice target to replace Sanchez while he ruled out a big-money offer from Liverpool.

Tanzi is quoted by the Mirror as saying:

“He [Lemar] is their priority to replace Alexis Sanchez. Monaco are not totally against the idea of an offer this month, but it would have to be a very big offer.

“I am told that Liverpool wouldn’t make a big offer.”

I have my doubts over the validity of the story as it seems unlikely that Monaco would drop their asking price from £90m to almost £60m – even with Lemar’s form being slightly disappointing this season.

However, IF this report is accurate then we’d be mad not to push through a deal to sign Lemar as £61m in today’s market is excellent value for a player of his ability and potential.