Arsenal
Premier League • England
No offers for Youri Tielemans, as report highlights big Arsenal concerns over Leicester star
Arsenal have yet to make a firm move for Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans due to concerns over the player’s “physicality”, claims a report.
Tielemans has been on the radar of Edu all summer, but the Gunners have yet to advance their interest. The Belgium international seems set to leave Leicester this summer after entering the final 12 months of his contract.
The Foxes are already understood to have dropped his asking price from £50m to £25m due to his contractual situation. What is more, the 25-year-old, who has been linked with Manchester United, wants to move to The Emirates.
CBS Sports reporter Ben Jacobs has claimed “the player wants Arsenal and if Arsenal made a bid the deal will be done relatively quickly”.
That update came last week and there has been no progress since then.
Arsenal have added Oleksandr Zinchenko to Mikel Arteta’s squad since then, but they are still thought to be looking for a central midfielder.
Football.london report that a central midfielder “remains towards the top of the Gunners’ transfer priority list for the remainder of the window”.
No offers for Tielemans
But Arsenal have concerns over the Tielemans’ physical state, according to talkSPORT.
It’s somewhat of a throw-away line from the broadcaster, who have failed to elaborate further.
Tielemans did play 50 times for the Foxes last season and missed only a month of action with a calf injury. He also has a pretty good injury record in the midlands. He has played 158 times for Leicester since arriving on loan in January 2019.
His injury record reads well, but Arsenal have apparently found something that concerns them. And that may well explain why they have yet to put forward an offer.
Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has confirmed the club are not received a proposal for Tielemans.
He said: “There haven’t been any offers yet. There hasn’t been anything concrete or a proposition yet.”