After the fixtures of the last 16 finished in the Champions League last night, there were plenty of talking points about English clubs. With City crashing out, they follow Arsenal in falling out of the Champions League for this season, whilst Leicester remain the only English side still in the competition.
It was a strong Monaco performance in which they not only pulled back a two goal deficit from the first leg, but they then hit back at City when the Blues scored late on in the game. One of the star players was Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, who scored the first goal last night. Arsenal have been rumoured to be interested in young Mbappe, and it has been suggested that apparently former player and current Arsenal scout, Giles Grimandi was sent to the game by Arsene Wenger, for the purpose of watching the player.
Mbappe has been in fine form this season, with 11 goals in his last 11 appearances at the Stade Louis II. It was also previously revealed that Arsenal had their approach for the player turned down last summer, with the Vice-President of Monaco soon announcing that the club has no intention of selling the young Frenchman.
Monaco are keen to hold onto the talent, especially since Mbappe has been compared to a young Thierry Henry, who of course was also at Monaco at the start of his career. He’s got strength, pace and has shown that despite only being 18, he has no issue with facing some of the biggest names and talents in European football. Mbappe follows the string of young French strikers coming through the ranks, with Anthony Martial also making a big money move to Manchester United after few years back. It seems that Monaco seem to be good at finding striking talent and with the strong association between Arsene Wenger, Arsenal and Monaco, I think the Gunners would be in a better position then most to sign the 18 year old.
Mbappe is very unlikely to come cheap and I’ve always thought the Gunners should look to sign an experience striker rather than yet another future star. But with limited numbers available, should the Gunners consider making a big offer for Mbappe?
By AH