Arsenal are ready to finally bring Youri Tielemans to north London, according to reports…
What’s the word?
TEAMtalk claim that the Gunners are preparing a bid to sign the Leicester City midfielder in January but are also prepared to wait until the summer to seal him on a free transfer.
“The Gunners are ready to try and entice Leicester with an offer in January, but if not they will look to land him at the end of the season,” journalist Graeme Bailey revealed.
“A January deal could also be helped if Leicester manage to bring in some sort of midfield cover, and that could very well be in the shape of Azzedine Ounahi.”
The Mirror believe that ‘any decent offer’ will be tempting for the Foxes, who have previously valued him at around £25m but with around six months to run on his current £33k-per-week deal, you’d imagine it will be a lot less than that.
January bargain
With recent worrying injuries putting a potential dent in Arsenal’s progress on the pitch, it would make sense for sporting director Edu Gaspar to make a couple of moves in the transfer market with further strength in depth required.
The news surrounding Gabriel Jesus is a cause for concern as the Brazil striker faces three months out and whilst he needs to be replaced in the short-term, the situation must be used to pre-empt it from happening in other areas of the pitch. If Granit Xhaka were to get injured, for example, then Mikel Arteta will be pretty short on options in the middle.
That is why a move for Tielemans – an FA Cup winner with Leicester – is what needs to happen as he can hand the Spaniard a valuable alternative, one that could even contend with the Swiss star and Thomas Partey.
Once described as a “phenomenon” by former Anderlecht star Par Zetterberg, the Belgian maestro has been a reliable stalwart for the Midlands outfit, having registered 27 goals and 25 assists across 175 appearances, including four goal contributions in 14 league starts this term.
An average of 2.77 tackles and 1.62 blocks per 90 – a feat that ranks him in the top 17% of his positional peers across Europe – also highlights his impressive box-to-box nature as he’s able to help his side at either end of the pitch.
As such, Tielemans would be an ideal signing for the Gunners to make at the turn of the year as Arteta looks to navigate all the trials and tribulations that football has to throw at him as he looks to seal a historic 14th top-flight title.
AND in other news, Arsenal lead the chase for “magic” £43.6m machine, he could be Arteta’s own Bellingham…
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