Typical Arsenal: Lemar wanted to join but we missed the boat…

Respected journalist David Ornstein has claimed that Thomas Lemar was keen on a switch to Arsenal, but the club took too long to agree a deal with Monaco. The France international was lined up as the man to improve our attacking options this summer, having already brought Alexandre Lacazette to the club from Lyon.

Lemar was linked with our club throughout the summer, and it was widely reported that the 21 year-old wanted the switch to the Emirates, and that has just been confirmed by Ornstein.

He said; “The messages I was getting was that the interest in Lemar was absolutely concrete.

“They were hoping to make him their next signing [after Lacazette], but it wasn’t close at that point.

“Monaco weren’t interested in selling.

“Although, he had given indications, as I understand it, to Arsenal that he was prepared to join at that point.

“Lemar visiting the training ground? I know nothing of that.

“I’m not saying it’s not true but it’s certainly not been told to me by anybody.

“I have seen those reports and I fully respect them but I just can’t verify them myself.

“But what I have been told, reliably by a number of people, is that he had told Arsene Wenger that he wanted to, and was prepared to, join at that time.”

Of course we only managed to agree a fee with Monaco going deep into deadline day following a £60 Million offer from Manchester City for Alexis Sanchez, but by then it was just too late, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Pat J

21 Comments

  1. Let’s hope lemar fancies coming to us in the January I,ve got a feeling we might need him especially if Alexis does move on or can’t moivate himself to play well.

    Let’s hope Wenger puts in a good bid and doesn’t blow the chance by going in to cheap.

  2. David Ornstein on Le Mar.
    Has “claimed” “Was “linked”
    “Seen reports”.
    “As “I understand it” 🙂
    In fact according to reports Le Mar was linked
    with Barca PSG and Inter but really wanted
    Dulwich Hamlet but they signed Sanogo.

    1. Golly, then he saw a Redhead fan for life, and finally settled down again… to watch Arsenal on telly, given he was also a fan for life…

  3. pls how the hell was he even going to be signed …..if i could recall he was playing a match that same evening……….wenger usual tricks……i could have blah bla bla……………hoping we win but will really want to lose if dat will force wenger nd stan out if da club

  4. Sanchez is ready for tomorrow’s match,I wish he could sign a new contract and sign lemar in January that would be a plus to arsenal and the fans will be happy about that including i

  5. the parties meant to approach our primary target did have ample time not to make a complete mess of bringing him here. time and again we see arsene oversee a transfer window for a quality player in a sloppy amateurish way, one that left us expectant fans disgruntled, embittered and ridiculed by media, by the football pundit fraternity and also rival fans.

    We need a change of management, someone with tactical awareness; with scope, transparency and a sky’s are the limit determination. because those in executive posts, including wenger lack the passion that the fan have.

    i need to see finance support not just empty words with no follow up team investment. Its necessary for arsenal to bring an end to its latest perception of arsenal the laughing stock and as a comedy club.

    1. “again we see arsene oversee a transfer window for a quality player in a sloppy amateurish way”

      We should appoint you to dictate terms to the Monaco boss with a stern word or two to sell their star to us for 30M, no, while we are at it, why not make them agree to 1 million? Oh, wait, why not wag you finger and get him for no fee!

      1. Man City And Chelsea didn’t have problem buying Monaco’s players and we were in for lemar before Chelsea got bakayoko so maybe Chelsea or man city should do negotiations for arsenal football club and pay them a fee for doing the job for Wenger as the other clubs seem to get the job done without waging fingers I might add!

      2. you missed an important point its that wenger is a former manager at monaco which was held out as if he somehow knew officials over there and could swing matters our way. Wenger approached it with a mean intent £30m at the same time we offerred 4x that amount for another strike option and in the immediate aftermath of the neymar to PSG offer. If weng was being serious he’d have offered £50m at first instance and could have had his target for under £60m before our rivals would override us by making offers less likely to waste everbody’s time. wenger was wasting time, he aporoached matters too sloppy and as a result lemar to arsenal failed to materialise because wenger didnt want to meet the market price for a quality player he was getting us nowhere. Wenger was amateurish and failed to meet the £80m asking price its not rocket science.

  6. “Let’s hope Wenger puts in a good bid and doesn’t blow the chance by going in to cheap.”

    You do know that Monaco are built to sell players for a profit, right? That is their model, and they will wait for the last moment to sell to the highest bidder.

    That cannot be Arsenal. ManU or City will dish out 110M and get him.

    The likely way that Wenger will re-build this team is next Summer, after all the big clubs have dumped tens of millions in transfer fees for unproven players, and overlook proven ones who will be available for high salaries on a free transfer.

    1. Jjpawn I hope ur being sarcastic about rebuilding and other clubs buying “unproven” players lol coz the only club that needs rebuilding bcoz there players haven’t proved sshit is arsenal “laughingstock” football club and I’d like to see what top players are available on a free and then what players would actually want to sign for this comedy club! Oh and if Monaco’s model is selling for profit then why couldn’t arsenal buy from that selling club like everyone else? Lemar was on a plate but as usual Wenger under valued him like 4089 other players Wenger missed out on over money

  7. We really don’t need Lemar
    because according to Wenger
    Santi Cazorla’s return is imminent.
    It’s very “positive” news said Wenger.
    Wow I thought. Imminent means very soon.
    I wondered if Santi would be back tomorrow or next week perhaps?
    But further down in the article Wenger said
    “but Cazorla will not be back before Christmas” !!!
    Sanogo’s return to world class play was imminent for 4 years.
    Diarby’s imminent return lasted 5 years.
    Wilshere’s come back has been imminent for 7 years.
    Just like the league title’s return to Arsenal has been imminent
    …for the last 13 years 🙂

  8. Bring Reiss Nelson to the first 11 before he decides to leave us. this guy has a football brain . I bet he will be tapped up by January. everyone sees this dude is better than welbeck+walcott except the old prof.

  9. When I started reading here some years ago I’m sure there weren’t so many article titles ending with a question mark, clearly designed to invite uninformed speculation by fans in their blogs. What’s wrong Admin, can’t you report plain, simple concrete facts anymore?

  10. OOH! Critics knows better. This time Wenger gave a good bid 92million for Lemar, but those who hate him still see the wrong things only. Can one of you critics start bidding 92million for Lemar. Lemar is not worth 92million, be realistic guys. Wenger started well with 30 million. Lemar is not worth more than 60m according to the current market prices. It was too late, he could have bought Draxler, and give Ozil for free to Galatasary. That guy does not deserve to 140k/week. If he signs the new contract, they should cut his salary. Ozil is just a name. but Wenger is obsessed with this name. That is the reason players will move from Arsenal, because payment is not issued on merit. Compare Ozil and Ox. Whom can you pay more?

  11. The club only have themselves to blame over the Lemar deal. Everyone knew that top clubs would be coming in to take all of Monaco’s top talent after the wonderful season they had. The logical thing to do is identify which player(s) you want and pay the asking price. The asking price at the start of the summer for Lemar was about £40m. Pay the money because his value would just increase as the window dragged on and as other players like Bernardo Silva, Mendy and Bakayoko left. But no, Arsenal don’t work like that. Man City went for Silva before the window even started, meaning they paid £43m for him (plus add ons), if they left it late they’d probably have had to pay double.

    I really don’t understand Arsenal’s logic here, it was common knowledge that Sanchez wanted out from the start of the summer as well. Problem now is that we have bid £90m for Lemar, if Lemar has a good half a season then by January his value will be even more, whereas Sanchez’s value will only decrease (as well as Ozil’s).

  12. Everytime when the team sheet is released, and see Xhaka, Ramsey, and Ozil in the starting line-up, I get upset. Maybe someone of you guys see something good in these guys. How can a professional footballer play whilst listening to the referee’s whistle.
    Even this embarrassing Giroud, well build guy who falls like a kid

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