Arsenal will soon discover if their risky transfer strategy with regard to Youri Tielemans will pay off.
Despite being tipped to sign the midfielder in the summer, football.london revealed that the north London outfit were prepared to wait in the hope that the Belgium international runs down the final year of his contract with Leicester City thus enabling them to sign him on a free transfer.
The reason for this stance was because, at the time, the Gunners felt as though the Foxes' demands - which were in the region of £32million - were too high for a player with less than 12 months remaining on his deal and therefore sporting director Edu was in no rush to pursue a deal for the 25-year-old.
READ MORE: Arsenal hold key Youri Tielemans transfer advantage over Chelsea as Edu faces Danilo decision
With that said, there was a scenario that could have forced Arsenal's hand as football.london revealed they may have accelerated plans to sign Tielemans in the summer had other clubs - most notably Manchester United and Newcastle United - suddenly firmed up an interest in the midfielder.
Whilst this did not come to fruition, the approach was rather risky for many reasons at the time and it's still the case heading into the January transfer window as more good performances in a Leicester shirt during the second half of the season may alert teams across Europe.
Now, if the Belgian doesn't sign a new Leicester contract within the next 10 days, he will then be able to speak with teams outside of England with regards to a pre-contract agreement, which would then come into effect from July 1, 2023 - unless he is sold for a cut-price fee during the winter.
When speaking about his future last September, Tielemans didn't exactly give too much away: "I'm not going to speak too much about my contract situation at the moment," he said. "My family is very happy there, and that's important. I didn't leave in the summer as I always said the project had to be the right one.
"Just because things are getting worse now at Leicester doesn't mean I should regret. Whether you are in your last contract year or not, it's also not the case that I talk to the club every day about my extension or not. That is work for my agent. In the end, I will decide. There was talk of different clubs, but I won't go into that."
If the Gunners do stand firm on their stance to sign Tielemans on a free transfer then they'll have to wait until May 2023 at the earliest to agree a pre-contract with the midfielder as per the ruling that 'Premier League players can agree pre-contracts with any club in England, but only up to one month before the expiry of their current deals'.
This is because domestic transfers are regulated by each country's football associations rather than FIFA, and The FA in England are eager to ensure that there is no conflict of interest should a player play against his future club so effectively any pre-contracts can only be agreed until after the final game of a season.
As a result, if Arsenal are still planning on signing Tielemans for nothing they need to hope no other team shows any interest for the entirety of the January transfer window. Otherwise they could find themselves potentially regretting a decision to not seal a deal when they had no competition for his signature.
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