Lemar reportedly did not want to join the club due to lack of Champions League football.
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Now Arsene Wenger has himself gone on to confirm that Arsenal had submitted a €100m bid to AS Monaco for Thomas Lemar who scored twice in the 4-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Holland on Thursday night.
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Arsène Wenger encense @KMbappe : "Il peut être Pelé, il n'a pas de limite dans son jeu" !#GenerationTelefoot #40AnsTelefoot pic.twitter.com/VfQiOPzuAI
— Téléfoot (@telefoot_TF1) September 3, 2017
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Speaking to French TV show Telefoot, Wenger has revealed that he has not given up trying to sign Thomas Lemar and will instead try to sign him again when the transfer window opens in January or during the next summer window.
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[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “Yes, we bid €100m for Lemar but the player wanted to stay in Monaco,”
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“Yes, we’ll come back in for him.”
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“He is always ready to receive the ball, he is quite complete in both defence and attack.”
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The France international was also linked with a switch to Liverpool in the closing stages of the summer transfer window with many press outlets reporting that the only reason Thomas Lemar did not move to Arsenal was because he prefers a move to Anfield to play in the Champions League.
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He also went on to confirm that Arsenal were indeed interested in PSG new signing Kylian Mbappe but could not due to the excessive price tag on him before comparing the striker to one of football’s greats.
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[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “I wanted him too, but €180m is too much for us. [spacer height=”20px”] “Mbappe could be [the next] Pele, There are no limits to how far he can go.[spacer height=”20px”]
“We can already see the difference in the calls he makes [to receive the ball]). He scores but he also creates — only the very best players can do this.
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Wenger has been tracking the striker for some time and revealed he almost signed him for Arsenal a few years ago, but he continues to be impressed with Mbappe’s rise praising him lavishly for his talents.
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Well if we know one thing now that is the fact that the Thomas Lemar rejection is hardly the end of his chances of appearing in an Arsenal shirt.[spacer height=”30px”]
I for one cannot ever recall Arsene Wenger coming out so openly to confirm his desire to land a player. Wenger is notoriously known for keeping his transfer card very close to his chest and this is completely the opposite of it.
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Arsene Wenger holds a sway when it comes to French players and there is no doubt about it. He is loved, revered and respected widely in his homeland and by his compatriots.
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All the French player who are rising to prominence now have grown up watching Wengers team light up the Premier league and create history.
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Be it Mbappe, Lacazette, Thomar Lemar each and everyone of them know the kind of manager Wenger is and the history he has of developing mediocre French players and making them extraordinary.
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The fact that Lemar has rejected Arsenal now gives Wenger 6 months or a year to sweet talk Lemar and express his powers of persuasion something which has worked very well in the past with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette and Saed Kolasinac to name a few in recent years.
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