Reports: Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez favours a move to Arsenal
Riyad Mahrez would still prefer a move to Arsenal over Manchester City in the summer, according to an exclusive report from the Express.
The winger was the subject of a mammoth £60 million-plus-player offer from the English champions; however, Leicester rejected the bid, as they wanted to something close to £80 million.
Shortly after, Riyad Mahrez handed in a transfer request – his second of the season – before going AWOL, and it looked like he will almost certainly jump at the chance of a move to Manchester City this summer.
However, it now appears that wants to move to North London, as has been reported several times since the title-winning campaign of 2015/16.
And that comes after the 27-year old revealed that he has withdrawn his transfer request and is a Leicester City player for now. Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said:
"“It has gone. It was in January, it’s another transfer window. I am still here – I don’t want to put a lot of things in my head.“I am still in contract with Leicester so at the moment I am here and we will see.“At that time I handed a transfer [request] because I had offers from Manchester City so obviously I wanted to go. But now I am still at Leicester.“With me, especially, you never know what is happening. Every time I have to go but I am still here.“I don’t really want to talk about [whether] I am going, or staying. I just want to finish the last three games. We will see what will happen for me.”"
In other news, Real Madrid are also understood to be after Riyad Mahrez, as reported by Don Balon. The Los Blancos are eyeing a major summer overhaul which might see them make a number of marquee signings, and Mahrez could possibly be one of them.
At this rate, he’d be spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding who to play for, given that so many of the world’s top teams are rumoured to be after him.
Next: Match preview: Leicester City Vs West Ham United
All that remains to be seen is what price would Leicester City settle for. Since AS Roma’s bids last summer, they’ve maintained that they want an amount close to £80 million for him, but it seems unlikely that anyone would want to pay that.