Arsenal have reportedly insisted that Alexis Sanchez will stay at the club, ruling out the possibility of them signing Thomas Lemar before the transfer deadline.
As reported by The Mirror, Manchester City had submitted a £60m bid for the Chilean international, but they have left it too late as the merry-go-round risks collapsing as Arsenal haven’t been given enough time to find a replacement.
Both Lemar and Julian Draxler are specifically named in the report as potential options to come in if Sanchez moved on, with a reported €100m bid being made for the former in order to finally prise him away from Monaco.
However, it looks as though there will be no movement at the Emirates in the coming hours, as Arsenal simply don’t have the time to get a deal over the line and can’t afford to allow Sanchez to leave and be left painfully short up front having already sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool on Thursday.
It comes after Alexandre Lacazette had seemingly dropped a huge hint that his compatriot would be joining the Gunners with the tweet seen below.
While it was pretty ambiguous, the timing of it in particular made it seem as though it was a transfer hint with the comments naturally being dominated by those getting excited over an imminent Lemar arrival.
??? pic.twitter.com/ywZGdSvrWw
— Alexandre Lacazette (@LacazetteAlex) August 31, 2017
However, if this latest Mirror report is to be believed in that Arsenal will be keeping Sanchez, it will be a huge relief to many who want the talismanic forward to stay even though it seems as though he’s ready to move on.