- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Arsenal Transfer Link with Riyad Mahrez Overshadows Draw with Lens
- Updated: July 23, 2016
Arsenal’s 1-1 friendly match against Lens was seemingly an innocuous occasion. Although the Gunners fans will have been understandably excited to see their team back in action again, this was not a match with any particular importance attached to it.
However, if—as reports suggest—it was the scene of transfer talks for Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez, it could come to be regarded as a very significant day.
Eurosport reported that Arsenal used the match in Lens to meet with Mahrez’s agent, Kamel Bengougam. What’s more, they claim the player has agreed to move to the Emirates Stadium:
Riyad Mahrez is likely to join Arsenal, according to our colleagues in France. Arsene Wenger wants the Algerian, who starred for Leicester in their title win last season, to bolster his forward line which already includes Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, and Theo Walcott. The price is reportedly around the €50m mark and the move is set to happen imminently.
That would be a huge coup for Arsenal. Mahrez was arguably the outstanding player in last season’s Premier League and was even named the PFA Player of the Year by his fellow professionals.
Perhaps Arsene Wenger was intimating at a move on this scale when he told arsenal.com after the game:
We are very active. If we find the right candidates then we will spend the big money. We have already spent big, Until now, nobody has spent more on a transfer than we have in this country. Even if [Paul] Pogba might fly from Italy to England today, I don’t know… Overall we have made a big investment already but we are active.
Those comments were initially interpreted as an attempt to temper the disquiet among Arsenal’s disgruntled fanbase. However, perhaps Wenger was hinting at something more specific.
It wouldn’t be the first time Arsenal have tried to prise a player away from the Premier League champions this summer. Prior to Euro 2016, Wenger made an ill-fated bid to make Jamie Vardy his new …
continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com
