Although everyone’s still talking about Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez to Arsenal and reporting on it, there’s actually been very little change one way or the other.
There are two camps: journos who are adamant that the 25-year-old is moving to north London and those who are sure he isn’t. There’s no in between.
Among the ‘Mahrez is leaving Leicester’ (Mexit?) camp we have L’Equipe, who claim that Arsenal made a €41m bid on Wednesday, which was denied by Sky Sports but whatever.
The French media outlet’s consultant, Gilles Favard, also keeps saying that it’s going to happen.
L'Équipe consultant @GillesFavard now claims that Leicester are slowly giving in to Arsenal's approaches for Riyad Mahrez.
— Get French Football (@GFFN) August 11, 2016
We also have RMC Sport who are reporting that talks are ongoing. RMC chief editor, Mohamed Bouhafsi, said as such via his Twitter account before getting all Game of Thrones on us at the end. He also linked Chelsea.
Negotiations ongoing between Arsenal and Leicester. Arsenal made an offer for him. Mahrez very interested by Arsenal https://t.co/F7LRwPvz9X
— Mohamed Bouhafsi (@mohamedbouhafsi) August 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/mohamedbouhafsi/status/763521497096945664
Leicester hopes to keep Mahrez. AFC made an offer, negos ongoing. It's the game of the mercato. But there is only 1 winner at the end !
— Mohamed Bouhafsi (@mohamedbouhafsi) August 11, 2016
On the opposite side, we have journo Patrick Juillard claiming that Mahrez won’t force a move.
African football connoisseur @PatrickJuillard denies that Riyad Mahrez will force his way out of Leicester & that he is close to Arsenal.
— Get French Football (@GFFN) August 11, 2016
Claudio Ranieri was also asked for 1000th time about Mahrez’s future. The Italian pretended to be confused before claiming that Arsenal weren’t interested but, when asked definitively if the player would stay, he said:
“Well yes, but sometimes the manager says one thing & does another.”
https://twitter.com/GoonerManN5/status/763728991429791744
Another bit of useless information is the fact that the winger followed Yaya Sanogo on Twitter.
So there you have it. Is Mahrez coming to Arsenal? Probably not but the papers are having a great time. The situation has turned into a complete media circus.