Arsenal will have to break their transfer record for the second time this summer to land Thomas LemarArsene Wenger will have to smash Arsenal’s transfer record for the second time in a month to sign Thomas Lemar , from John Cross in Shanghai
The Monaco winger remains Wenger’s No1 target but the French club have stuck an £80m price tag on his head which is designed to scare clubs off.
Gunners boss Wenger believes a deal can be done - but will also have to begin a clear-out to shake-up the squad.
Arsenal paid £42.5m for Mesut Ozil in 2013, then £52m for Alexandre Lacazette earlier this month.
Now they could have to go through that new barrier to get Lemar who is understood to be keen to move to the Emirates.
But Monaco have stated publicly they do not want to sell all of their best players having already sold off Bernardo Silva to Manchester City, Benjamin Mendy could follow and Tiemoue Bakayoko has joined Chelsea.
Monaco look likely to hold to Kylian Mbappe but face a big struggle to keep Lemar with Arsenal having already made two bids and eyeing up another.
Arsenal will have to offload players though with Olivier Giroud set to leave, with Borussia Dortmund wanting him to replace Chelsea target Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Debuchy, Wojciech Szczesny and Carl Jenkinson have all missed the club’s tour to Australia and the Far East to sort out their futures.
But the closest one to leaving is out-of-favour striker Lucas Perez who is a target for former club Deportivo La Coruna.Arsenal’s No2 keeper David Ospina was due to go to Fenerbehce but even that has gone quiet and the lack of movement has badly affected the chances of incomings.
Arsenal are also determined not to lose Alexis Sanchez despite his insistence that he wants Champions League football. But they do not want to sell to a Premier League rival and would be reluctant to lose two forwards if Giroud goes.
Calum Chambers is also set to go with a permanent deal likely after last season’s loan to Middlesbrough. Crystal Palace are keen along with West Brom and Leicester.
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