Monaco man Thomas Lemar was strongly pursued by both Arsenal and Liverpool in the past year. Arsene Wenger was reportedly targeting Lemar to be the replacement for Alexis Sanchez last summer transfer window deadline day as the Gunners were working on shipping Sanchez out to Manchester City.
Obviously both deals fell apart, but later in March, Lemar made it known that he wanted out of Monaco and his rhetoric encouraged Liverpool and Arsenal to come back and make big bids for him again. Some reports this spring even claimed Anfield was closing in on the forward.
? Preliminary agreement with @AS_Monaco_EN over the transfer of Thomas Lemar
? https://t.co/WwsvqzPsfq #AรบpaAtleti pic.twitter.com/NnUwAPLCCC— Atlรฉtico de Madrid (@atletienglish) June 12, 2018
Well, it just wasn’t meant to be as Atletico Madrid announced that they have reached an agreement in principal for the 22-year-old playing club ball in the principality of Monaco.
The Atletico statement reads that the club has reached “a preliminary agreement over the transfer of Thomas Lemar,” and thatย to “Over the next days, both clubs will work to close the agreement for the definitive transfer.”
Atleti adds: “The French International is concentrated with his national team in Russia to play the 2018 FIFA World Cup.”
It is widely believed that the arrival of Lemar, big news enough in its own right, will also be the deciding factor in keeping Antoine Griezmann at the club. Griezmann had been strongly linked with a move to Barcelona.
Lemar scored three goals and provided 10 assists this past season.
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