It seems clear to me that the answer to the question of whether Arsenal will be successful in the pursuit of the Algerian international star Riyad Mahrez lies firmly with the player himself and not with his club Leicester City. As we saw with the transfer of their French midfielder N’Golo Kante to Chelsea for something like £30 million the Foxes are not going to hold on to a player that really wants to leave as long as they get a decent price.
That is why I believe that Claudio Ranieri has been talking about Leicester being the best place for Mahrez to develop and suggesting that he might just be a squad player at a bigger club, rather than declaring that he was not for sale. If that is the case then Arsenal fans will be crossing their fingers that the latest news from Algeria on the subject, reported by The Sun, is that Mahrez has agreed to join the Gunners and the personal terms of the move have already been thrashed out.
So that would mean the only thing stopping the transfer from being completed would be to agree the transfer fee with Leicester and the report claims that it will be a little less than £40 million. It would be great if Arsenal could get this done in the next few days as is being claimed because then we could get the Premier League Player of the Year settled into the side in time for the opening EPL match against Liverpool.
Bob.