Arsenal could now be just £5m away from agreeing fee for ‘special’ player – journalist

Add as preferred source on Google

Arsenal and Leicester City may be edging closer to agreeing a price for central midfielder Youri Tielemans.

Journalist Ben Jacobs said on YouTube that Leicester’s asking price is slowly coming down from the level it was set at earlier this summer.

He has indicated that Arsenal would be willing to pay £25 million for the Belgian international, with Leicester apparently potentially ready to accept £30 million.

That said, it remains to be seen how that would be structured in terms of upfront money and add-ons for the man with less than a year remaining on his Foxes contract.

Arsenal want to pay bargain price for Tielemans

Jacobs said: “If Arsenal want Tielemans, they’ll find a way to get the deal done.

“It will then all come down to whether they get him at the bargain fee they are looking for which is the mid £20 millions or if they have to pay something closer to what Leicester paid for Tielemans, which is £35 million.

“If it’s £35 million, I think that would be with add-ons. At the beginning of the window, it was maybe even more, like £38 million. But now, it’s £30, £31, £32 million, maybe even a little bit less but there may have to be add-ons taken into that tally.

“Arsenal may turn around and say it’s not worth it. They may say that they’re good at the moment and that price is too high and revisit it in January or even in the summer when he is a free agent.

“Then it becomes a bargain. It remains to be seen if Tielemans would wait for that.”

“Youri is a special player,” said former Leicester captain Wes Morgan. “The amount of work he does, off the field and in the gym and the hours he puts in is the reason why he is producing these magical moments.

“He is always the type of player to be doing extra shooting practice at the end of the game. If you keep working hard like that, then it pays off.

“Now you see the best of him. He wants to add goals to his game. Add assists to his game and he is producing that on a weekly basis.”

It is not often that a player like that can be bought for £25-30 million, but it remains to be seen if Arsenal will now hammer home their interest.