Arsenal will only sign Leicester’s Youri Tielemans this summer if they offload another midfielder before the transfer window closes, according to The Athletic‘s David Ornstein.
The trusted journalist claims the Gunners are massive fans of the Belgian international and would be keen to snap him up, but any deal is “complicated” by the fact that the club want to see a player (such as Granit Xhaka) sold first:
“We’ve reported that Arsenal have a firm interest in him. The decision makers at the club are all-in on him but it’s more complicated than that because when you speak to people around this situation they make it clear that there may need to be a departure first for Tielemans to come in, be that Granit Xhaka or someone else in that area of the field to free up the space and the finance.”
It must be emphasised that Ornstein has also mentioned previously that Arsenal wouldn’t sign another winger unless they sold Nicolas Pepe but that didn’t stop them from going after Raphinha.
You do feel that there’s more to this than meets the eye. It is not as though the Gunners are blessed with a vast array of central midfielders. The likes of Fabio Vieira and Martin Odegaard like to play further forward, while Oleksandr Zinchenko would also be deployed as a left-back if he does complete his move from Manchester City. It may be the case that Arsenal have identified another target who they feel is a better option than Tielemans.
