Have Arsenal turned to Tottenham-target Jean-Michael Seri after missing out on Lemar?

Everyone thought that Thomas Lemar would be Arsenal’s next signing after the arrivals of Alexandre Lacazette and Saed Kolasinac, but after much dithering and the sale of many other Monaco players, not to mention the comments today from the Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev, it now looks unlikely that the French Champions will be selling any more of their title-winning stars in this transfer window.

Now it would appear that Arsenal have turned their attention to the Nice midfielder Jean-Michael Seri, who has helped the South of France club make it back into the top three of Ligue 1 and a place in Europe’s elite competition, the Champions League, for the first time in over 50 years.

The Ivorian international is extremely well respected and has been favourably compared to Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, probably due to his diminutive size, but at just 26 years of age he could have a very bright future ahead of him. He has been very strongly linked with a move to our rivals Tottenham for most of the summer, while Arsenal seem to have been concentrating on Lemar.

Compared to Lemar though, he is probably less of a gamble, considering his maturity, but could also be a much more economical target as he is £35m-rated while Lemar has been valued at anything from £45m to £80. Wenger does seem to be intent on buying French players again at the moment, and Seri could only be impressed with the purchase of Lacazette this summer.

Wouldn’t it be great if Wenger managed to bring him to the Emirates, and frustrate Tottenham at the same time. And who knows, he may even turn out to be a better player than Lemar….

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36 Comments

  1. Him to replace Cazorla, gr8 business. Still need Goretzka to boss the middle of the park (hehehe just dreaming)

    1. Yes. I want Gorertzka to come here too, big time

      Gorerztka is very good defensively and offensively

      Goretzka and Lemar would complete us (assuming Alexis stays)

      1. Sadly Goretska seems destined for Bayern but Seri is a fantastic player that would immediately solidify the midfield. A PERFECT Santi replacement.

        But unfortunately Wenger would never replace his favorite son with a better player that would instantly improve the midfield dynamic of the team.

        In Wenger and I guess Ramsey we Trust. Lol

      2. I absolutely agree if we keep sanchez and go out to get lemar and Goretzka we can challenge for the EPL (injuries permitting)..

        My fear is I have never known Wenger to go all out and get what we really need ..he always seems to leave one position lacking….CM DM CB or striker….there’s always a problem position

        One thing is Obvious we need a very athletic skillful powerful CM to compensate for Ozil and Xhaka…Goretzka seems to fit the bill

    2. Arsenal have not made any bid for Seri though they hold a genuine interest.News coming in is that Aaron Ramey and Mesut Ozil will be signing contracts worth £125,000 and £280,000 a week.Shame though as both players don’t deserve those contracts.
      On Lemar, the utterances of the vice president was just a negotiation tactic.He’s going to be an Arsenal player for sure.It’s just a matter of time but everythingcshould be down by next week Wednesday.

      1. If Arsenal can pull of Lemar and a quality CM then I think Ozil COULD become instrumental for us, Ozil unlocks stuff with his passing. He isn’t a grab the game and drag us forward type but if we can get a player who can do that from CM like Cazorla did along with Lacazette upfront, Lemar and Alexis…

        We could see the best out of Ozil, I do think he is a player that can excel with the right players around him and if a team can afford to have the luxury of an Ozil (because the rest of the team makes up defensively) then they will be better for it.

        When Ramsey is playing well and he gets back to defend then I think we see more out of Ozil and Xhaka, I thought Ozil played better at the end of the season than in the middle when the team imploded and that I do remember seeing Ramsey getting back more than he did in pre season Chelsea game, along with the extra CB to help win the ball back, it has meant Ozil can focus more on finding space ready for when his team mates have won the ball back. Ramsey appears to like being in and looking for offensive space and I do think he should be more focused on winning the ball back and then worry about the attack.

        If Ramsey AND Ozil are both more focused on being in the right place for when someone else wins the ball back then we have to central players who are not defending, leaving more for Xhaka who isn’t the most agile of players.

        While both those players are frustrating, I find Ramsey to be the worse as I feel his best moments of his playing career was in those few months alongside Arteta and he was looking like a contender for POTY already then got injured, that period of time seen Ramsey put in more tackles per game than Arteta (on average I think it was 4.4), he was doing the defending and then taking the ball forward in attacks. He played like Vieira but came back after injury with too much focus on attack.

        Maybe they could be worth that much in wages but I wouldn’t gamble on them both, I would cut Ramsey lose and aim to make the CM one which will get the best out of Ozil.

      2. If Ozil was worth £280kpw a lot of clubs would be lining up to take him..the fact that only Fernabache showed an interest tell you everything..

        Sanchez on the other hand inspite of the exorbitant wage demands all most of europe and EPL top clubs fancy him..

        I am convinced if we give Ozil the contract we will end up with a walcott situation….most fans won’t want him but his wages are so heavy it would scare off other clubs..

  2. It’s not over for Lemar
    Anything can happen between now and the close of the window
    Owners and managers say these things all the time.

    I do agree that Wenger is fantastic at dithering though. He almost never completes all the big signings before the season begins. Very frustrating. 13 years of frustration

      1. Bigperf! So ur saying wenger did all previous transfers but this summer he’s decided to not be involved? Coz nothing has changed in the set up as far as I know and judging by same old waiting around Tactics till every big club buys the top players they want It seems wenger will be picking up scraps again and probably get targets he didn’t set out to get! The first sign that nothing’s changed will be if lemar don’t get done bcoz Man City have got 2 Monaco players while wenger is penny pinching to get 1 in fact we can’t even sell the deadwood and the last pre season games are in a couple of days

  3. Seri is a central midfielder
    Lemar is a Left winger and attacking midfielder

    Seri would be at the back of Central midfield in Cazorla position

    Would love to have both

    1. It could still happen…… It should happen………….. I’m just preparing myself for the annual August anticlimax

    2. Also rumors about Carvalho (yet again).
      It is looking like Wenger wants a CM and AM, also reading about ElNeny offers getting accepted sounds like making space and replacing a foreign player with a foreign player doesn’t affect HG numbers.

  4. I find every transfer window Arsenal makes stupid offers then a small increase then small increase until the player or club get angry and we move on to another player and do the same if you want something bad enough find the money stop penny pinching GOYG

  5. Spend you old man. The familiar dialogue ” we were not ready” is not going to work this time. Just fed up of this excuse everytime!

  6. Why not just bring back Arshavin?

    Arshavin Lacazette Ozil
    Xhaka Ramsey Coquelin
    Monreal Koscielny Mustafi Bellerin
    Cech

  7. I’m so sick of people telling those of us who are disgruntled fans to relax and give this club time to correct itself…for anyone who believes that taking a wait-and-see approach is appropriate at this juncture they should take a good long look at themselves in the mirror because they are a big part of the problem…no other “big” club’s fans would stand for this shit for nearly as long as we have…think about it, we’ve witnessed a changing of the guard at every major club in England, Spain, France and Germany in the last several years because those “big” clubs failed to live up to expectations(Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Chelsea, ManU, ManCity etc…)…for some reason, many fans have become as fragile as our current manager, believing that there couldn’t possibly be a suitable replacement, even though everyone of these clubs have found multiple replacements and still achieved far more than our club…this mindset has been created by an organization that has been milking it’s fans, telling countless lies(no world class players available) and lowering expectations every since they rolled out the biggest lie of all: that we couldn’t spend because of the new stadium but once it was paid off we could compete with any team in the world…this organization is rotting from the inside out and if we don’t demand that those in charge put soccer first this despicable behaviour won’t end with Wenger’s ridiculous 2 year contract…I think the real fear isn’t that a suitable replacement doesn’t exist, but that this organization is so money hungry and poorly mismanaged that we will sink even lower by choosing our next coach the same way they choose our players, on the cheap…even so, we need to see what mustache will do if left to his own devices so he will have to show his true colours…only then can we purge this club and start anew

  8. wenger is hopeless…it was indeed a betrayal to fans to resign him..wenger kronke and dean plis d greedy boardroom need to go ASP.

  9. Wenger should get serious, spend the money, get high quality players win laurels and make all gunners fans around the world happy. he should stop foot dragging or else he’ll loose some of these players once again.

  10. As it stands monaco fc are in the champions league but are selling many of the players that helped to get them there. Its unlikely monaco will get beyond the opening stages of that competition, not by the way they’re currently selling players. They could easily meet thier former-players in the champions league playing for CFC or for any of the M’chester clubs. Monaco could also face the embarrassment of ex-players of theirs playing for arsenal in europa competition (lemar, mbappe). I’m assuming the two are also sold. If monaco continue to sell the french championship winning players then they’r complicit in forfeiting any hopes they may have in both euro competititions. Encouraging them to sell all players will, likely, result in ending their champions league and their europa league prospects – Can we safely assume that this is what they want to do. Food for thought. Of course id be happy with Lemar but this explains why FCmonaco seem to b playin hard ball.

    1. Monaco will be fine mate, their strategy is to promote youth. Even last season no one knew who most of these players were

  11. Seri is a very mobile, creative player who can replace Santii. He is capable of high intensity exciting football. I do hope we get him as he would suit our style perfectly. Quality player.

  12. I’m really hoping for Lemar

    Lemar Alexis and Ozil behind Lacazette could be an amazing attack (assuming Ozil works harder this season)

    1. if in 4 years Ozil has not worked hard why do you think he will now?..

      If Ozil will change I don’t think it will happen with Wenger as manager..

      But hey Mad Lens is in the building so you never know..

  13. Monaco say lemar will stay but we will sign him
    Arsenal say sanchez will stay but he’ll go.
    Both clubs reinforcing what is a sellers transfer window like non other I’ve ever seen, crazy money being banded around not helped by the likes of city ‘what’s your price? Yes okay then’.
    Where’s the negotiation?
    By giving the sellers asking price straight away a presidant has been set for all to other clubs.

    I’ve love Seri but come on if Spurs were that determined to sign him then they would have already.
    I hate the fact that they are sat back in this window chilled as from back to front they are strong 🙁

    1. Spuds are not sat back because they think they have a good enough squad, they need to be careful on spending now due to stadium aspirations.

      Think I read Levy talking about how it is hard to find the right quality and how it is important that they are ran the right way…
      We heard that before haven’t we XD

  14. @wall2wall.
    Well put and food for thought but this has been Monacos business model for some years selling their best players there developed and relying on youth to come through its just this year is Korea extreme to their success in the winning the league and cl performances.
    Apparently they feel they can get away with as the fan Base is small enough to manage and appease in other ways.

    I heard some fella talking on a sports channel about them. I don’t know who he was but he seemed to know his stuff and had a french accent 🙂

    1. @Ronnyə – thanks for response. Im all for arsenal. it is just food for thought remember they sold Martial to man u also not very long ago. suggests as a club there fans couldnt give a damn bout missing out on further success in euro competition – i’m assuming that in the “principality of rich monaco” they have a passionate following of fans. While you Ronnyə are saying they ate content to be a conveyor belt simply for turning assets into cssh money. If your right we need not concern ourselves with the Q of “if” lemar is coming to arsenal – but a matter simply of when. I read their average gate is 9000 so many own yachts and farrari over there they may not even notice any difference of players coming into or leavin the club.

  15. I DO AGREE WITH ROY, WENGER KEPT BARGAINING AND OFFERED LESS FOR A QUALITY PLAYER. HE ALWAYS PUT 10 TO 20 MILLION LESS.SO THE OWNER OF CLUB LIKE MONACO CAN’T BE BOTHERED OF WENGER. FORWARD AND BACKWARD,BY WHICH TIME ANOTHER CLUB SNATCHED THE PLAYER FOR THE ASKING PRICE. HE DOES NOT WANT TO LEARN HIS LESSON.IF YOU REALLY INTERESTED IN A GOOD QUALITY PLAYER ,THEN PUT THE ASKING PRICE AND GET THE PLAYER ASAP. A CLUB LIKE MONACO IS NOT POOR,AND THEY DON’T NEED EXTRA MONEY.
    THE REASON THEY SOLD A COUPLE PLAYERS BECAUSE HE PLAYER WANT TO MOVE TO ANOTHER LUB FOR SOME EXCITEMENT .HE NEEDS TO SEND WALCOTT ON LOAN.
    AT THE MOMENT HE CAN’T BUY UNLESS HE SELL THE DEADWOODS.
    HE IS SO CONCERNED ABOUT THE FINANCES OF HE THE CLUB AND YET HE IS WAISTING A LOT OF MONEY ON THE DEADWOODS.
    JUST LOOK AT THE WEEKLY WAGES HE IS PAYING WEEKLY.
    WAKE UP WENGER.IAM NOT BEING NEGATIVE,BUT IT LOOK THAT THE BANNER,THANK U WENGER WILL BE OUT SOON.
    HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT THINGS RIGHT,BUT HE IS FOOLING THE ANS AGAIN.

  16. This is what you get when you’re too slow in the transfer market. What was arsene and arsenal doing when Chelsea and man city were buying Monaco players. We keep making the same mistake every transfer window.

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