£90m player was ‘closer than people think’ to joining Arsenal

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Arsenal have had their fair share of transfer near misses over the years.

The Gunners have narrowly missed out on signing the likes of Mykhaylo Mudryk and Moises Caicedo in recent years, while Arsenal famously bid for Luis Suarez more than a decade ago.

Speaking on his Patreon, Team News and Ticks has been discussing some Arsenal signings that almost happened, and he shared some interesting insight on Thomas Lemar’s proposed move to Arsenal.

The insider says that Lemar was closer to joining Arsenal than many people think, claiming that the Frenchman actually visited London Colney ahead of a move.

Unfortunately, despite a £90m deadline day offer, Arsenal didn’t manage to get this one over the line.

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Arsenal very nearly signed Thomas Lemar

The insider shared what he knows about Lemar.

“The ones that got close. I can’t think of anything super exciting. Nuri Sahin, the Arthur Melo one threw me. Thomas Lemar was a lot closer than people think. That was a wild one. I wasn’t putting info out at the time, but I felt sorry for people that were because so much of that was right,” He said.

“For anyone who doesn’t know. We agreed personal terms with him pretty early, he visited Colney multiple times.

“The original fee I think was about £35m, then Monaco said £45m, and we ummed and ahhed about it, it took us a while, and then we said £45m was doable and they pushed it up again.

“On deadline day when it looked like Alexis was going, we went in with that crazy offer that was reported, I think it was £90m, but he was playing for France at the time and there wasn’t time to get it done.”

Arsenal had a lucky escape

Thomas Lemar was seen as such an exciting player around that time, but it’s fair to say that Arsenal had a lucky escape with this one.

Lemar has bags of ability, but he hasn’t quite hit the heights that were expected of him when he was at Monaco.

Lemar wouldn’t have been a bad addition to this side, but £90m would’ve been way too much considering what he has since achieved at Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal got lucky with this deal.