Marca claim all roads lead to Arsenal for €72m winger

The Spanish press have on Friday ramped up the Gunners’ pursuit of Thomas Lemar and claim “all roads lead to Arsenal” for the winger.

Arsenal were interested in Lemar, along with Liverpool, in 2017 and in fact were close to signing the France international on deadline day that summer – but had a £92million offer rebuffed by the Ligue 1 club.

Having burst onto the scene with 22 goals and 33 assists in 127 appearances for Monaco, Lemar eventually signed for Atletico Madrid and became their record signing in 2018, but he has failed to impress in the Spanish capital.

The Frenchman has scored only four goals and laid on six others in 64 games for his current employers, with none of those goal contributions coming in the current campaign, despite 21 outings.

Arsenal have been linked with Lemar once again, and Marca via Sport Witness have published a bold article claiming a deal to Arsenal is close.

The paper report that “all roads lead to Arsenal” for Lemar and describe a January move to London as being “very well on track”.

 

 

The possible move is believed to have been initiated by Atletico with boss Diego Simeone recently admitting Lemar had been disappointing since his reported €72m transfer.

Earlier this month Simeone said: “Now, if Lemar can stay or not… we know that agents work in an exemplary way. Clubs work in terms of the needs of the clubs.

“But, as a footballer, every time he has been available, he’s played a lot more than he hasn’t played.

“His characteristics have always excited me. But he hasn’t been able to live up to expectations.”

Marca claim Monaco are due 30% of a future transfer fee, but Atletico want him off the wage bill and there will be some hard negotiating over the fee.