Riyad Mahrez to Arsenal has been the talk of the town for the last few days and now the whereabouts of his agent may have provided a clue as to where Mahrez will end up. But it is not that simple.Â
News broke, pretty much out of nowhere on Saturday morning that Arsenal had ‘agreed terms’ with Riyad Mahrez, after EuroSport France shared their ‘exclusive’ information. Since then, various sources have provided different opinions and on how far along the line the transfer of the 25-year-old is. RMC Sport said there was still no fee agreed with Leicester but a contract was in place, whereas others denied anything had been agreed.
The 25-year-old Algerian international was the PFA Player of the Season last season and nobody needs reminding of his quality, if you do, then just watch his goal against Celtic in a pre-season friendly yesterday.
Mahrez’ agent was at Arsenal vs. Lens on Friday, and that fuelled speculation that the Gunners were holding talks with him, but the agent himself has told the Guardian that was not the case – although he admits he was at the game.
Riyad Mahrez’s agent has denied there is any interest from Arsenal in player despite reports in France today #lcfc
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) July 23, 2016
Arsenal are known to be very cloak and dagger with their transfer approach so it is unlikely the agent would admit to it if he was at the game for talks.
Claudio Ranieri seems confident he’ll keep his main man, but also slightly nervous. He has been talking about how Mahrez would only sit on the bench at Arsenal – that to me stinks of trying to scare Mahrez from moving, something he probably also succesfully did with the Jamie Vardy situation. Ranieri seems to know Arsenal are sniffing around once again, and he is confident he can persuade the Algerian to follow in Vardy’s steps and stay put.
For what it’s worth, Mahrez would be a great addition in my opinion. He’s a hard working winger that does a lot defensively and most importantly is incredibly efficient going forward. With an attacking trio of Mahrez, Ozil and Alexis, defences would find it incredibly hard to cope as it is not possible to double up on all three!
Fresh Arsenal understand that contrary to reports, Mahrez is not in London and still currently with the Leicester City squad as they continue preperations to defend their Premier League title.
We will have to wait and see on this one, but stay tuned to fresharsenal.com and @Fresh_Arsenal on Twitter for all updates this summer.