Arsenal admit defeat in pursuit of Thomas Lemar as Arsene Wenger says deal is ‘dead’

No deal | Arsenal admit defeat in pursuit of Lemar
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James Olley24 August 2017

Arsenal’s pursuit of Monaco winger Thomas Lemar is “dead”, according to manager Arsene Wenger.

The Gunners had two offers for Lemar rejected earlier this summer but their pursuit has been complicated by Monaco’s willingness to sell several other players from the squad which won Ligue 1 last season.

Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Tiemoue Bakayoko have all left the club for fees totalling around £130million while Fabinho and Kylian Mbappe are expected to depart to join Paris Saint Germain this month.

And Wenger told Standard Sport: “[A deal for Lemar] is dead because Monaco has closed the door. They are still on cases like Mbappe and Fabinho. They’ve already lost Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Bakayoko, so Monaco is at a stage where they have closed the door. We have the numbers, we have the quality to deal with that.”

Monaco also turned down an £89m bid for Mbappe from Arsenal at the beginning of the summer when Wenger harboured hopes of pulling off a dramatic transfer coup by beating Real Madrid to land one of the world’s highest-rated teenagers.

However, PSG have emerged as the most likely candidates with a player-plus-cash deal thought to be worth as much as £180m – with Lucas Moura moving in the opposite direction – close to being agreed. Mbappe would spend the first year on loan with the Parisians having an option to buy thereafter.

Wenger came close to signing Mbappe two years ago on a free transfer when his contract was close to expiry at Monaco but the forward opted to sign a new deal to stay on at Stade Louis II.

And the Frenchman said: “That shows you how quickly things go up and down in life. At the moment it’s an abstraction. It’s just a number and very difficult to imagine nowadays. We saw £100m for the first time last year and just one year later, it’s over £200m.

“Will that go on? I don’t know, but it looks like it doubles on the transfer market every year now. It looks to me like it will reach a stage where it’s very difficult to predict where it will go. Nobody knows in our job.”

Wenger has since prioritised trimming a bloated first-team squad with Lucas Perez, Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy among those expected to depart.

Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images
Michael Regan/Getty Images

Chelsea and Liverpool are keen on signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with the midfielder due to hold talks today with Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis over his future.

Wenger reiterated his desire to keep the 24-year-old, who has so far proved unwilling to extend his contract which has less than 12 months left to run, and ramped up the rhetoric on the importance of committing his future to Arsenal.

“I think we invested a lot of time, confidence and money on players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who we bought at a young age,” said Wenger. “For me, they have a responsibility for the future of this club because Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be one of the big English players in the coming years. I personally am highly determined to keep him here at the club and I hope he will commit.”

Laurent Koscielny will return from suspension for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.