Arsenal will surely be encouraged by the latest transfer news coming out of Leicester City involving key midfield player Youri Tielemans.
The Belgium international is one of the Gunners’ main targets for the summer, CaughtOffside understands, and one imagines he’ll have other suitors as well in the near future after impressing at the King Power Stadium.
According to The Athletic, Tielemans has a contract offer on the table from Leicester, and has done for some time, though it’s now seen as getting to the stage where he probably doesn’t need to give the club a clearer signal that he’s planning to move on.
This could mean Arsenal will get the chance to snap up Tielemans and give themselves the ideal upgrade on inconsistent performers like Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers has also perhaps hinted he’s not too optimistic about keeping hold of Tielemans, having described himself as being realistic about the situation and prepared for a difficult outcome.
“I think, obviously, with his [Tielemans’] contract running down, then I’m pretty sure there will be teams looking at him,” Rodgers told Sky Sports, as quoted by the Leicester Mercury.
“But I’m also a realist, as well, and we are real as a football club.
“You’ll get people asking, ‘can you hang on to these players for the next six, seven years?’
“But the reality is, if a player does really well at Leicester, he may want to leave and move on to another club. For us, it’s just being ready for that.”
Manchester United have also been linked with Tielemans by the Daily Star, but with Arsenal currently leading the way in the race for a top four finish, could they be the favourites?