Arsenal being forced to face Leicester before signing Mahrez?

If the latest Arsenal transfer rumours are right, then Arsene Wenger has already agreed terms with the Leicester City and Algeria international star Riyad Mahrez and his people about his move to north London this summer. Reading between the lines of what Claudio Ranieri has been saying as well, it appears to me as though the Italian is almost resigned to losing his star player.

Ranieri may still be hoping to persuade Mahrez to follow in the footsteps of his teammate Jamie Vardy in rejecting the chance to join the Gunners but I do not think he believes he will be successful, so with Metro reporting the news from Algeria about the agreement with Mahrez having been in place for some time already, why are we waiting?

One reason that strikes me is that Arsenal are due to travel to the King Power to face the Foxes in our second match of the Premier League season and I am sure that Ranieri would not want Mahrez lining up against his former club. Could it be that Leicester are making us wait until after the play us before completing the sale of Mahrez?

Perhaps Ranieri thinks that there is still a chance of keeping him and if they can get off to a good start, including a win over Arsenal, it might just sway things in his favour. Do you think this might be the reason for the delay?

Bob.

Tags Ranieri Wenger

11 Comments

  1. I can understand Vardy staying at Leicester as he is 29 and makes sense to stay at a place he won the PL with and the fans love him

    But Mahrez is only 25 and he would be going to a bigger club and he knows Leicester probably won’t finish in the top 4 next season. Also, playing with Ozil and Alexis is a big plus

    I hope and pray Wenger goes for Mahrez, Lacazette and a CB
    It will save our season and make us a complete quality team

  2. I really like to see him in an Arsenal shirt, but I dont trust AW can sigh 3 big names a single window, so I would reserve that slot left for a forward worth 40-50m

  3. Good win tonight on all fronts youth pace standing in their face goals and goals and goal assisted and scored by the defense I enjoyed it

  4. Like you I too have a degree in
    “Reading between the lines”
    I read that article and came
    to the exact same conclusion.
    Mahrez will indeed sign on the Monday after we play Leicester at 2pm GMT.
    My Sherlock Holmes sleuthing says Lacazette will sign Sat Aug 6th at 3pm GMT.
    My Harry Potter magic tells me that Mustafi will sign 4.05 pm GMT Wed 10th August.

  5. Good game even though it was friendly but we performed well. Santi’s performance shows why he is so important. Also goal from Ox was amazing.

    1. A heel chop ronaldo would’ve been proud of!!
      A few goals and a bit of his swagger back is great to see! he was lacking confidence a lot last season, it was easy to see his play was suffering for it….
      A lot of fans seem to have written him off… Reminds me a lot of the vitriol Ramsey received before his monstrous 13/14 season. From the ashes the Ox will rise!!

  6. We gooners never had a peaceful time during transfer season. for press its a time to attach every name to arsenal and for Mr. wenger its like perfect time to player poker.why bother with casino when its too much fun with arsenal fans……

  7. That’s dare devil bad plan if Ranierri is thinking that way and it will not help his side. First, he of all people admits that Mahrez was distracted by Arsenal interests in their 4-0 beating from PSG. Keeping a player you know you will eventually release is not the way to defend the title. you will have a half worth of the player with his heart elsewhere, you will lose opportunity to get a new player of closest capability signed up as replacement with enough time to integrate into the squad, you can cause lots of negative changing room dynamics etc. Plus for Arsenal, it is the sure way to break Wenger’s interest as Wenger is easily rebuffed by teams that demonstrate ‘Liverpool’ tactics (Wenger infamously offered 40+1M to sign Suarez but could not even return with a serious bid of say 50M which may have gotten the deal sealed). For Ranieri who is a class coach he should know all these negatives. If he doesn’t, them we should put this information out in blogs for him to pick up as Wenger team of Negotiators only concentrate on one thing – Bargain, Bargain and More Bargain even forgetting timeliness of a deal. Because how come 13 day into the new season we still have not managed to get the deals done and we are still being linked to the same players? of course with the exception of those that have been signed by other teams. it means we are so keen to negotiate down the figures forgetting that even a world class player will be facing a battle if they are not integrated into the team on time.

  8. I’m affraid the time we face LFC he will already have signed new contract with his current club and during the game he will be reminding us what we’ve missed out!

    Hope Im wrong about this. 0)

  9. I have seen this for the past 11 years, and each time Arsene Wenger with Smirk face lies to media, Football world and indirectly to Arsenal fans that the others CRAZY to pay that kind of cash, and we tried our very BEST !!!!!!! to get the right players for the right amount of money.
    In the mean time, season tickets sale at highest price in the world continues, with other sales from Shirts, and other Arsenal items, not to forget HUGE TV revenue from EPL, and ECL, and him and Greedy Kroenke laughing to the banks while thinking what a stupid (please forgive my French because I am tired of this $hit), and Gullible supporter we have. Giving them Flamini, Walcott, performance charging the highest in the world.
    Recently was in the news that Guardiola MC manager warned overweigh players to shape up or be thrown out of team, saying it is not fair to the fans to pay top price to watch fat low performers play. That is the type of winning manager Arsenal needs, put the interest of the fans ahead of everything else. How long this circus will perform at Emirate Stadium with Wenger as the main Clown!!!!

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