Atletico to try and sell Lemar to England

According to Marca, Atletico Madrid will try and take advantage of the “inflated” transfer market in England to offload Thomas Lemar for as much money as possible, though they do admit Atletico paid AS Monaco €72 million for the player who has turned out a complete flop. Talk about an inflated market.

To that end, the wingers’s agent, Jorge Mendes, will now be looking to sound out potential interest from the Premier League. Arsenal is mentioned in the report as a likely suitor, as they’re ‘not meeting their objectives’ at the moment, and they could need reinforcements in January.

Arsenal were indeed linked with Lemar prior to his arrival to Madrid back in the summer of 2018, as were Liverpool. However, Liverpool signed Xherdan Shaqiri in the same transfer window for around €15 million, and they also have Divock Origi who recently signed a new contract. They have already completed the signing of Takumi Minamino from RB Salzburg this winter, and at the moment, they seem well-stocked in backup options for their main attacking trio. Arsenal signed Nicolas Pepe last summer, and they also have Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson as young attacking options.