Journalist says Youri Tielemans would snub Manchester United to join Arsenal

By Shamanth Jayaram

Journalist Ben Jacobs has claimed on The Football Terrace that Youri Tielemans dreams of joining Arsenal and would even reject Manchester United for the Gunners.

The North Londoners have been linked with a move for the Leicester City midfielder for a few months now. Many even believed he was Mikel Arteta’s top target for that central midfield role, but things may have changed.

Arsenal went and signed Fabio Vieira from Porto earlier this month, and although the 22-year-old isn’t naturally a box-to-box midfielder like Tielemans, many reports claimed that the Gunners have cooled their interest in the Belgian international.

However, Jacobs has revealed that if Arsenal go back in for Tielemans, the 25-year-old will reject every other club and agree to move to the Emirates.

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Youri Tielemans would reject Manchester United to join Arsenal

Jacobs said: “Arsenal can still return to that deal (to sign Tielemans). They’ve already agreed terms, they’ve put a year’s worth of work into it.

“Manchester United, under Ten Hag, haven’t yet made any kind of serious move. I think, in a straight choice between Man United and Arsenal, Tielemans is picking Arsenal all day long.

“Not out of any disrespect to Manchester United, but just because his dream was to play for Arsenal before he signed for Leicester. He went to Monaco when Arsenal nearly signed him because he was worried about playing first-team football at Arsenal.

“It was always a football club in the back of his mind. It’s not really about Man United vs Arsenal with Tielemans, it’s the fact that if he goes anywhere in the Premier League and Arsenal’s offer still stands, he’s picking Arsenal because he’s just got a soft spot for that football club.”

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TBR View:

After constant rumours for a number of weeks, links between Arsenal and Tielemans suddenly disappeared. Many fans felt that the Gunners are no longer keen to sign the Belgian, but Edu may be playing a clever game here.

If Arsenal know that Tielemans will reject every other club to join them, the Gunners may just wait until the end of the transfer window to secure his signing for a fee that’s much lower than what he’ll cost now.

If that’s what Edu’s doing, it’s really smart, but it’s extremely risky as well as the player may get tired of waiting at some point and decide to explore his options elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the coming weeks, but hearing that an ‘incredible‘ player like Tielemans will reject Manchester United for Arsenal is music to Gooners’ ears.

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