Exclusive: Arsenal transfer target still wants to “find a new club” despite new contract rumours

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Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans is still making it a priority to find himself a new club following summer interest from Arsenal.

The Belgium international is coming towards the end of his contract at Leicester, so could be a free agent in just a few months’ time, though there has been some speculation that he could make a surprise U-turn now and sign a new deal at the King Power Stadium after all.

A report from the Mail has suggested Leicester are quietly confident that they could end up keeping Tielemans, though Fabrizio Romano has insisted in his exclusive Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside’s Substack that the player’s plan remains the same.

Romano says Arsenal showed an interest in Tielemans in the summer, and it seems the Gunners could still have the opportunity to sign the 25-year-old as he’s seemingly not thinking about staying at Leicester.

“The priority for Tielemans is to find a new club on free transfer, there are still no changes on this,” Romano explained.

Youri Tielemans could still leave Leicester City

“I think Arsenal had a big chance to sign him last summer, but they decided to proceed with different strategy and results have been great until now… so, we can’t judge anything negative for Arsenal honestly.”

Still, if Tielemans does surprise us by signing a new contract at Leicester, this will surely be one that Arsenal live to regret not getting done when they had the chance.

Mikel Arteta would surely do well to strengthen his team’s midfield in January, and Tielemans looks an ideal candidate after his fine form in the Premier League in recent years.

Ex-Gunner Nigel Winterburn recently made it clear he’d welcome the signing of the former Monaco man.

“Tielemans is a player that I like. The fact that he’s played in the Premier League is a bonus because there’s no surprises there. You know what that player is capable of and you just assess whether he can play the way Arsenal want to play,” Winterburn told FootySuperTips, as quoted by Arsenal Buzz.

“But we’ve been linked with him for so long and nothing seems to have happened. Again, it’s a case of let’s wait and see, but it’s definitely the type of player that we would be interested in for sure.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t be [interested] unless Mikel Arteta and Edu know something different because Tielemans has real quality that’s for sure.”

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