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Arsenal still eyeing late moves for Draxler & Liverpool target Lemar

By mac14 on August 30, 2017

According to the Express, Arsenal are still eyeing moves for Thomas Lemar or Julian Draxler as replacements for Alexis Sanchez if he joins Manchester City.

Sanchez has been strongly linked with a move to the Etihad in recent days with the Guardian claiming talks are on-going after Arsenal rejected City’s opening £50m offer.

There has been talk of a potential swap deal involving Raheem Sterling but City seem to favour a cash-only deal and a move is becoming increasingly likely before the window slams shut.

That would leave Arsenal in need of a top class replacement and the Express are citing journalist Emanuele Giulianelli as saying that Wenger is still eyeing late moves for Lemar or Draxler.

Both players have been linked with a move to the Emirates all summer with Lemar in particular a key target for Wenger and Giulianelli says we’ll go back in for the duo if Sanchez completes his move to City.

He’s quoted as saying by the Express:

“Alexis Sanchez has been pursued by Manchester City for many weeks and now he seems very close to joining Pep Guardiola and the Citizens,”

“If Arsenal will take £70m from his departure, they are ready to invest that money in Lemar. If something should go wrong with Monaco, the second option comes from Ligue 1 too and his name is Julian Draxler.”

Wenger said last week that our pursuit of Lemar was ‘dead’ as Monaco were refusing to do business but Liverpool have since submitted a huge offer reportedly worth £74m.

It remains to be seen whether Wenger would be prepared to match that offer but Draxler should be available for much less than Lemar with the German international tipped to leave PSG following the arrival of Neymar.

The Metro reported earlier this week that Arsenal were plotting a late £32m bid for Draxler so I think he’d be a much better buy if we could snap him up for less than half the price of Lemar.

I’ve said all summer that we should cash-in on any player in the final year of their contract so I’d sell Sanchez to City for £70m and use the money to buy Draxler and a top centre-back.

Let’s see what the next 48 hours brings….