Leicester City's Youri Tielemans has the perfect opportunity to impress the Arsenal camp on Saturday when the Foxes travel to north London for their Premier League clash at the Emirates stadium.
Arsenal have been closely monitoring the Belgian after he entered the last year of his contract, presenting Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu with an opportunity to snap him up in a cut-price deal. The Gunners were initially expected to firm up their interest in the opening weeks of the summer window, but the addition of Fabio Vieira and the lack of departures at the time led to minimal progress.
The club established contact with Tielemans' representatives a few months ago and are believed to be well positioned on personal terms, however, football.london understands Arsenal are now prepared to wait until his current deal expires in order to secure the 25-year-old on a free transfer.
READ MORE: Arsenal make major Youri Tielemans transfer decision but Newcastle could force Edu into rethink
Arsenal feel as though Leicester's current demand of £32million is too high for a player with just one year remaining on his contract and so Edu is in no rush to sign the player unless other clubs begin to push for his signature, football.london understands.
Despite this, things can change quickly in the transfer window and now Arsenal have managed to offload one midfielder in the form of Lucas Torreira, Tielemans can convince the Gunners hierarchy to make their move this Saturday. The midfielder is expected to feature in what could be one of his final matches as a Leicester City player after impressing against Brentford last week, finishing with a pass success percentage of 90.4% and going close after hitting the woodwork from range.
Arsenal's interest in Tielemans has been well documented throughout the summer, so the 60,000-plus fans will no doubt give him a warm reception when he's on the pitch to get their feelings on his potential arrival well and truly across to Arteta and Edu.
It's been reported that Tielemans is sold on a move to the Emirates this summer, meaning there remains a likelihood that the two clubs could eventually meet in the middle to fulfil his wish. Arsenal's well-established relationship with the player and his agent has seen them become favourites to wrap up a deal, now it's a waiting game to see who will bluff first, if at all.
The wing is also thought to be an area of interest to Arsenal as they look to resume their £120m spending spree over the next three weeks. However, any movement in that position could depend on the outcome of Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson's own futures.
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