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Based on a number of reports this morning, it appears that Arsenal’s pursuit of Riyad Mahrez may be back on again – and the club may get some help. Eurosport FR’s Ilyes Ramdani says that Mahrez has told all parties involved (including current club Leicester City) that he wants to leave for Arsenal.
Further, various French journalists (including a dude who may or may not be referring to himself as “The Spectre”) report that Arsenal has placed a £30 million bid which Leicester City has rejected, unsurprisingly. It appears the bid will be raised to £35 million, which I would wager would also be rejected, based on the out-of-control prices some players have been found to be worth this summer.
And so we come to this.
Amid rumours of £35m Arsenal bid, told Riyad Mahrez's agent had meeting with Leicester's director of football John Rudkin today #lcfc #afc
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) August 10, 2016
If true, there are two ways this meeting could go.
- “Look John, my client would like to leave. We won’t go public with it unless you make trouble, now go negotiate and get my dude to Arsenal.”
- “Okay John, we leaked our ‘desire’ to leave to the press. So what’s the new contract offer looking like now? Bigger? Good.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Arsenal had been used to leverage a bigger contract; it wouldn’t even be the first time a Leicester player has done it in 2016. And this totally opposes something reported by our most reliable Arsenal reporter literally just yesterday. But Mahrez is a good player (better than Jamie Vardy for sure, in my humble opinion) and I’d understand Arsenal wanting to bring him in. He’s not a perfect fit for the squad, but a wide playmaker is definitely something we could use, and Mahrez is definitely quality. It could probably be made to work. We’ll see how this develops, but I’ll go on record as saying that I hope this deal gets done, one way or the other.