Tottenham preparing to hijack Arsenal move for French midfielder Thomas Lemar.
Arsenal’s move for Thomas Lemar has become less likely as the Gunners face tough competition from Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham, according to a report in the Express.
The Gunners had been frontrunners to sign the French midfielder before now as he continues to struggle to make an impact in Spain, but Jose Mourinho will feel he has the appeal to make Lemar choose Spurs.
According to the same report Arsenal wanted to sign him when he was at AS Monaco, the Gunners outbid Liverpool for his signature in 2017, but he failed to join either side.
He made a £63 million move to Madrid a year after and Atletico will be looking to recoup a lot of their initial outlay.
Atletico could listen to offers around half the price they paid for him as they look to sign reinforcements before their Champions League game with Liverpool.
Selling Lemar would give them the funds to sign Edison Cavani before his contract expires next June.
Mikel Arteta is said to be an admirer of Lemar and he seems confident that he can get the French World Cup winner firing again.
Arsenal may have to settle for a loan move with the option of a permanent transfer next summer, but Atletico needs all the money they can get now.
Lemar is top quality but his fee could be a little too much for Arsenal when they need to prioritise the defence. But who knows, the board could spring another surprise as they did with Nicolas Pepe.
If Lemar joins, Arsenal would be a French-speaking squad again after the Invincibles era. He could be a good playmaker to replace Xhaka in the middle, but we would lose Xhaka’s aerial ability
I’m not impressed with his wing play as he is too slow to be a winger, but his playing style in central midfield is similar to Cazorla’s. Because he is a left-footed playmaker, he could create through balls to Kolasinac, Tierney and Saka
Why should we even chase him???
I really hope this is media boolsh*t
Can he play as a central defender?
No, but he can play as a central deep-lying playmaker
Would that be enough or not?
Your thoughts tho..I don’t think he can play there ….or do you have facts he has played there before now..
For me we dont need him..
We need a defensive midfielder before we run toreira down…and an extra defender will do…
We need quality central defenders first and foremost!
Agree Le Coq, like we have for the past 5 years or more.
He has never played that position for club or country….n he is no carzola so so we need to stop dreaming about him being new carzola. He is no where near carzola skill set.
Lol
could only see that happening if Laca went other way as they wanted him originally straight swap deal.
No chance we are after him. He turned out to be a total flop.
Big no thanks to that. He’s shown to be quite average presently and won’t help our shoddy defending one bit.
Better wingers and midfielders than him for sure.
Now if it was a Laca Partney DM swap, well then there’s something to talk about.
Otherwise I’d take a hard pass on Lemar and rather chase a Leroy Sane transfer while we’re in dreamland.
We could swap Laca for Lemar – they are similar value on the market…We could have Auba playing through the middle then, and have great support from Lemar, and we get midfield reinforcement…We are in need of a goal-scoring midfielder. That would improve us tactically quite a bit (and wouldn’t cost a penny). Having only the front three goal-scoring with none from the second line to support that is not good enough in PL at the moment.
LEMAR IS NOT COMING TO US AND ALL REALISTS KNOW THAT FULL WELL. Wish this site was sometimes realistic with daft rumours that ignore Kroenkes stinginess.
If Mourinho wants him then he must be worth getting
I hope we get him.
He can replace Ozil or play on wing.
Pepe……. LEMAR…..Martinelli
……Aubameyang/Lacazette
OR
Pepe………Fekir……..LEMAR
……Aubameyang/Lacazette
With all due respect, he is not am Ozil replacement. He Can’t play ahead of ozil. He’s more of a xhaka replacement. And right now it’s debatable if he is an upgrade on xhaka.
There is no doubt we will be inundated with a plethora of rumours during this transfer window, especially considering our over abundance of injuries and well-known defensive struggles…sifting through the menagerie of fake news will no doubt be an incredibly stressful situation for us fans… we’ve seen some much-needed improvement since Mikel’s arrival, but most fans are hopefully savvy enough to realize that we’re a long way from truly figuring things out…of course I loved the honest commentary provided by Luiz following the ManU game, which was a refreshing refrain considering our club’s horrible record regarding such matters since the final few years of Wenger’s reign…it spoke to the club’s misstep when choosing Emery, while still putting ample blame on the backs of the oft-times physically ill-prepared players…as such,it’s clear that we desperately need to make some very difficult personnel decisions in the coming days and months…we definitely need to be more proactive when it comes to scouting some fresh talent, while simoultabeously finding the right balance through the acquisition of some talented and experienced players which will allow us to remain relatively successful throughout this transition…I’m not convinced that we have the right people in management to facilitate this plan, especially when Raul won the day over the much more useful “Diamond Eye”, so I can only hope that Edu, Raul et al will allow Arteta to actively participate in the process so that we can finally put an end to our long history of trying to jam square pegs in round holes