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Arsenal told to pay £20m after seeing opening bid rejected – reports

By mac14 on August 17, 2016

According to reports in Italy via the Sun, Arsenal have tabled an opening £16m bid for Juventus midfielder Mario Lemina but may have to pay up to £20m to get a deal done.

Arsene Wenger is widely reported to be working hard trying to bring in a centre-back and striker before the end of the month but it looks like the boss could also be keen on strengthening his midfield options.

That’s because the Sun are citing reports coming out of Italy that claim Arsenal have now tested Juve’s resolve with an opening £16m bid for highly-rated midfielder Mario Lemina.

The 22-year-old only completed a permanent move to the Turin giants this summer following a successful loan spell from Marseille but that doesn’t appear to have put off Wenger from trying to lure him away from Italy.

However, it looks like we’ll have to revise our offer as the newspaper suggests that Juventus are demanding closer to £20m for Lemina’s signature while we could yet face competition from the likes of West Brom and Schalke.

Lemina is a huge talent but if other clubs drive the price up, then I expect Wenger to walk away as we all know he doesn’t get in to bidding wars, plus our reported interest in the Gabon international is curious to say the least.

I may be wrong, but surely another midfielder is probably the last thing we need to be spending big money on right now? Reports suggest that we’re struggling to agree a fee for Mustafi because Wenger wants to ‘hold back’ funds for a new striker so why on earth would he pay £16m-£20m on a midfielder?

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I can only assume that these reports of a bid being placed for Lemina are false. The only way we’d be in for another central midfielder is if A) Jack Wilshere or Aaron Ramsey are crocked long-term again, or B) someone is leaving.

I hope it’s not A or B so let’s just put these reports down as idle paper talk and pray Wenger is concentrating his efforts on strengthening the areas we need to add to.