Following Gilles Favard’s rather bold claims on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning that Arsenal were pushing hard to get Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez, people have gone out of their way to find out if he was telling the truth or not.
Many English reports suggested he wasn’t being 100% truthful with Arsenal denying the claims they were actively trying to sign the Algerian winger, and now certain reports in France are reporting the Gunners aren’t as close as Mr Favard makes them out to be.
On Thursday afternoon, according to Patrick Juillard, a French reporter who specialises on African football for Foot365, Mondafrique and RFI Radio, Arsenal aren’t as close as Mr Favard says.
In a tweet claiming his own information, he tweeted: “Arsenal are still far away from signing Mahrez, and the player won’t try and force Leicester to let him leave.”
INFO: #Arsenal est encore loin de faire signer #Mahrez. Et le joueur n’ira pas au clash pour quitter #LeicesterCity. pic.twitter.com/5pO4zBJSoF
— Patrick Juillard (@PatrickJuillard) August 11, 2016
Answering a further question on the subject, he did, however, explain the Gunners were interested in the player, just that it wasn’t close like Gilles Favard let slip on Wednesday.
So here we are, as we expected, with some disagreement over a deal that could change both Arsenal’s and Leicester’s seasons before they even started.
There’s still over two weeks left. Let’s see what happens.
