Martin Keown surprised Arsenal never made move to sign 26-year-old midfielder

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Martin Keown has admitted he was surprised that Arsenal didn’t move to sign Youri Tielemans this summer.

The Arsenal legend has been speaking on talkSPORT and he feels Tielemans would have been of interest to his former side.

The Gunners had been long-linked with a move for the Belgian over the past few windows and were expected to consider a swoop this summer.

Instead, Tielemans has made the switch to Aston Villa after running down his contract at Leicester City.

And Keown has suggested that Arsenal may have passed up on the opportunity due to the 26-year-old’s wage demands.

Keown surprised Arsenal didn’t move for Tielemans

Speaking on talkSPORT, Keown suggested he was surprised that Tielemans hasn’t moved to the Emirates Stadium.

“It’s interesting that Tielemans hasn’t gone to Arsenal,” he said. “It looks like he might have gone to Aston Villa.” 

“He has gone to Aston Villa,” Jim White responded.

“I’m pretty certain they [Arsenal] would have been interested in him, they’ve been linked with that player for some time,” Keown added. “That can only be a financial situation. 

“You’d have thought that might be attractive, no transfer fee. But if his wage demands are too high, then maybe that’s where you see Villa moving into that area – paying different wages now that they might not have paid in the past.”

Tielemans has struggled at Leicester this season and was part of the side that suffered a shock relegation from the Premier League.

But Keown believes he is still a top-quality player and claimed former Gunners boss, Unai Emery, will be keen to compete with his old side next season.

“He had a very disappointing season last year,” the Arsenal legend said of Tielemans. “Whether that was the transfer speculation, or whether he had fallen out with the manager, we didn’t see the best of him.

“But we know he’s a quality player and I think Emery will want to compete with Arsenal as well. There’s going to be a lot of transfer activity for Aston Villa this summer.”

Arsenal cooled their interest in Tielemans over the past year after they looked nailed on to snap him up at one point.

It’s apparent that the club had some reservations about signing the Belgium international.

Nevertheless, the Gunners seem to be targeting higher-quality players now and are closing in on signing Declan Rice.