Arsenal missed out on the chance to sign Riyad Mahrez from Leicester – before he joined Premier League rivals Manchester City for £60m.
It turns out Jamie Vardy was not the only member of Leicester City’s legendary title winning team who Arsene Wenger wanted at Arsenal.
Speaking to France Football, 2015/16 PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez has admitted that he was far from happy when it transpired that The Foxes had blocked a dream move to the Emirates – some two years before he joined Manchester City in a club-record £60 million transfer.
And if Mahrez was already unpopular among some Leicester fans for the way he tried to force a move out of the King Power Stadium, these comments won’t do his reputation any good whatsoever.
What’s that smell? Oh, it’s just bridges being burned.
“For me, it is clear that I lost two years at the very highest level. I lost two years,” Mahrez fumes. “Leicester blocked me. They told me: ‘You do not go, you do not go!’
“My agent had talked with Wenger who really wanted me, it was almost done with Arsenal in the summer of 2016. I was really frustrated.”
Now a two-time Premier League winner with Manchester City, Mahrez hasn’t struggled for silverware at the Etihad.
The downside, however, is that he is merely a talented squad player these days, rather than the undisputed talisman he became at Leicester and could have become at Arsenal. Mahrez was left on the bench as City lost 3-1 to Liverpool on Sunday, falling nine points adrift of the early league leaders.
Not that the winger will look down on Arsenal, eight points worse off and stuck in sixth, and wish he was wearing red and white instead.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
