Arsenal have been rejected by French Ligue 1 side Monaco in their attempt to land Thomas Lemar; but that isn’t stopping the North London club, as Arsenal will increase the transfer bid for Lemar in the coming days.
The French international is high on manager Arsene Wenger’s transfer target list. The 21-year-old is expected to be the replacement for Alexis Sanchez, as the Chilean looks likely of leaving the Emirates this summer. Lemar scored nine goals in 31 games last season in the French top-flight.
Arsenal have had a £30.7 million bid already rejected, and may need to increase their offer to £40m to land the player. Despite the increase, Monaco have previously stated Lemar is not for sale this summer.
Arsene Wenger spoke about the summer tranfer market after the club arrived in Australia for their summer preseason tour.
“That’s all speculation at the moment, there is nothing really concrete about any signing,” Wenger said in Sydney, Australia. “He’s [Lemar] a player that we have looked at, but the rest is only speculation.
“I am open to get some more signings, but it is not easy to find the players who can strengthen our squad, because we have top-quality players.
“There are two ways to improve always: analyse what we did well last season and what we did not so well and improve that, and then you can bring new players in.
“But at the moment, because we are in pre-season, it is very important for us to analyse well what happened last season and where we can improve.
“We have top quality in our squad, and at the moment I focus on that.”
Arsenal have already signed Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette, and hope to add more French firepower this summer.
