Arsenal may have been turned down by one Leicester player already this summer, in the form of Jamie Vardy, but the Gunners will be a little more hopeful of securing fellow teammate Riyad Mahrez, who has reportedly rejected a new contract from the Premier League champions.
The Leicester trio, Vardy, Mahrez and Kante were always going to be the players that other top European sides came calling for this summer, after all three had fantastic domestic campaigns. Vardy had the chance to sign for Arsenal but favoured a new contract with Leicester, whilst Kante seems likely to soon sign for Chelsea with a rumoured £32 million offer on the table according to SkySports. That leaves Mahrez’s future up in the air, who has arguably received the least attention out of the three despite being named the PFA Player of the Year.
Mahrez previously seemed quite keen to stay with the Foxes, however the news that the Leicester team may be slowly dismantling with the sale of Kante to Chelsea, Mahrez has reportedly turned down Leicester’s latest contract offer and would be open to a move away. Barcelona and Real Madrid were also reportedly in the hunt for Mahrez, but have since gone off the trail after looking elsewhere. Arsenal have therefore become favourites for the Algerian and are favoured much higher by the bookies, than any of the rivals for his signature .
Arsenal may be prioritising a striker at the moment as the next incomer at Arsenal, but it shouldn’t stop the club from looking at Mahrez ahead of the new season. The Gunners are in desperate need of a top quality consistent winger because after Sanchez, the level of quality in the wingers we currently have drops dramatically. A price of around £25 million has been rumoured for Mahrez’s services, which is a decent price for someone who scored 17 goals and grabbed 11 assists last season.
We will have to wait and see if there are any developments to the story in the coming days, but Mahrez really would be a major coup for the Gunners.
By AH
So does the Telegraph
The telegraph says we will get BOTH Higuain and Mahrez
Personally, I will believe it when or if it comes on Arsenal.com and NOT before
But if we got Higuain and Mahrez that would be amazing. we would have a goal scoring winger with P and PL winning experience and A Top striker who has scored over 35 goals for Napoli last season and nearly 30 goals for Madrid in one season.
I would prefer Lacazette and Manolas, we definitely need a CB as well. So if we end up signing 2 forwards then we will again struggle in defence.
Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil has liked an Instagram post criticising Arsene Wenger’s lack of action in the summer transfer window. ?
That could all change with the signings of Higuain and Mahrez….. Fingers crossed. …. Again! ?
Kaveh Solhekol
✔@SkyKaveh
Presenter on official Napoli radio station says Gonzalo Higuain “will almost certainly join Arsenal for €50m plus Olivier Giroud”
3:43 PM – 16 Jul 2016
1,2661,266 Retweets
545545 likes
Then we have this fellow:
Piers Morgan
✔@piersmorgan
Please, God. I’ve suffered enough, just give me this one thing and I will never complain about Arsenal again.
4:08 PM – 16 Jul 2016
593593 Retweets
530530 likes
Yeah I read that tweet too
Piers had a link to an Italian tv presenter who said Higuain is going to Arsenal for £50 million plus Giroud. An that Higuain is happy to join us
I hope its true
I don’t believe it
because it includes Giroud !!
Wenger loves Giroud more than his wife
@ARSENALOVER
YOU ARE SO RIGHT LOOOLL
Arsenal are 100% favourites to be favourites to make purchases to every players available and never make it!!!!
I think Arsene lock in a room in chair rocking back to front with head in hands and Ivan Gazikgas banging door asking what purchases to make…
Hahaha ? ?
To get both Higuain and Mahrez would be a good bit of business but unfortunately I am a pessimist when it comes to Mr Wenger and transfer rumors.
That’s understandable mate, but the news of Higuain coming to Arsenal is growing by the minute.
The Italians first leaked the news of a so called Thursday meeting and now they done it again, they just love to talk and live to eat, of course! ?
Higuain is coming to Arsenal ? Ozil will be pleased to link up with his old Real Madrid buddy. ?
Mate have never seen you this happy.. is it the cialis hahaha
please give us a break…………….. We know we are 500% favourites to sign every Tom, Dick and Harry under the sun
*Farts*
I certainly love the idea of Higuain to Arsenal, BUT am not happy with Giroud going there at all….Yes Higuain is better but we won’t have depth in the CF….that’s for another day,If/when it actually happens…
On a lighter mood,I can’t wait to see the look on Vardy’s face if Mahrez signs for Arsenal (or any club for that matter)..now that Kante has gone to Chelsea…
If Mahrez leaves,he wilbe left alone and he will surely be unhappy, for that reason alone,I want Arsenal to sign Mahrez!
Vardy has the cushiest deal in football (well apart from Wenger). He has a big contract and no expectation given the team he plays for
I don’t understand…….
Why don’t we bid 60mil for Aubameyang(who’s a bit younger)……. And keep giroud as back-up/no2 striker?……and we’d be Armed with two instead of just one
Or why don’t we just bid for Higuain without swapping
Rather than splashing 50mil+giroud for a 29yr old Higuain….. This is no good deal!
We may be back here again in a few seasons…..Not Tasty at all!!!
I read that Aub has already said he doesn’t want to play for us, has that changed?
I would guess that Wenger is thinking of some of the prospects when looking at transfer targets and if Akpom isn’t going to be loaned out so he can train with the 1st team then maybe Wenger has high hopes for him?
He might come good like Afobe did for Wolves..
We may very well be back in the same situation of needing a CF in a couple years time if our own youth do not step up…
Then again… Maybe Higuain could surprise us all and play for longer than expected…
Exactly my fear! We won’t have a quality depth in our striking department…
Chelsea have 3 I don’t need to mention them…
Man city have Aguero and and bony plus goalscoring midfielders..
Leicester..Vardy,okazaki,Musa,Ulloa…
Watford..Ighalo, Deeney,Isaac Success..
Arsenal: higuain,Sanogo, Akpom..that’s terrible.
Wenger cleary has Welbeck in mind,he wants to go with only one striker for this season and wait for Welbeck next season, that’s a massive gamble…
If I’m le prof, I’ll buy higuain and another striker(a diminutive 1)…if we have to sell giroud to get higuain, then by all means go ahead…we cld use Walcott as our back up and wait 4 welbz to come….if Wenger buys huguain and mahrez, trust me we wldnt have much to complain this season… I want dat mahrez deal, personally to piss of that first class a-hole lineker, with d ridiculous moustache dat looks like pubic hair
We don’t really need Mahrez, unless we offload Walcott. What we need is:
1) A manager who can organize the team to compete with the best
2) A striker who are at least as good as Giroud, so they can compete for their place
3) A defender, who can play central and substitute on the right
More midfielders will not help.
I think we need Mahrez or Draxler or another top winger to do well in CL
especially if we offload Campbell
Walcott, Ramsey and Ox were not that great last season
Mahrez is high scoring winger and he could mean the difference between PL winning and CL winning
But I agree that a striker and CB is a priority for the PL
I admire your optimism about winning the CL but think it is beyond us. The standard required is the top level in football, higher than the world cup in my opinion.
But we can dream.
When the whole Vardy fiasco was going on, what upset wasn’t the fact that he chose to stay. It was the fact that we were after the wrong LCFC player. Our RW is strongly overlooked because everyone is stuck on a ST and a CB. Mahrez is needed as well, player of the year and RW solved…
Arsene get this deal done
The Higuain one excites me, It’d be terrific if we could add his finishing abilities to our ranks. They had a piece on all the best forwards in Europe throughout the last three seasons, AFTV, and Higuain is up there with the biggest names around. I agree with Robbie, scoring in Italy is difficult, much better defending than in France say. Similar to prem difficulty in my opinion, except prem probably creates more chances due to the end to end nature. Italy’s top goals record was just broken recently by Higuain, it stands at 36. The prems record is over 40 goals, and RVN had something like 39 before that. So it’s no cake walk in Italy. I repeat, adding one of Europes finest to our ranks would be absolutely terrific stuff. Please make this happen Arsenal, pretty please.
We should look into other player and cash swap deals. If Wenger is throwing it out there that he’s willing to use Giroud as a make-weight, we should do the same with a few other players. Roma want Szcz, we want to sell Szcz, and Roma have a CB we are looking at. Marhez, we should ask lei how they feel about Walcott, or Campbell if we are looking to offload. Gibbs, if Wenger is interested in Sissoko, maybe think about a swap. Or see if Gibbs would go to Germany, doubtful, but if he did like the idea of playing CL football in another country, Rodriguez swap deal.
GOTTA GET HIM!!!
Higuain and a cb would be awesome, higuain mahrez and chambers as cover at cb and I’m dreaming! I’m sure Wenger will find some way to fook it up though lol. Can never in a million years see Wenger letting giroud go as part of a deal though. Unless of course giroud has encouraged the idea.
Cech
Bellerin-Gabriel-Koscielny-Monreal
Xhaka-Cazorla
Mahrez-Ozil-Alexis
Higuain.
..yes we need a CB, but even without a CB this team is good enough to launch an assault on the EPL. make it happen Wenger!
Not just EPL but champions league as well. I am having an orgasm. Wenger and the board, please and please,make these happen and I will have you in my memory for a long time.